How to Spot a Genuine Deal (and Dodge Fake Discounts)

That big red "70% OFF" badge is doing a lot of heavy lifting — and often, it's lying. The single most common trick in online retail is the inflated "was" price: quietly raise the reference price, then "discount" back to roughly what it always cost.

Three quick checks before you buy

• Check the price history, not the badge. A real deal shows a genuine drop from what the item actually sold for recently — not a made-up RRP.
• Compare across shops. If one retailer's "sale" price is just the normal price elsewhere, it isn't a deal.
• Ignore the percentage; look at the pounds. "60% off" of an inflated price can be more expensive than "20% off" of an honest one.

How Shopperazzi handles this

We deliberately don't rank by headline discount percentage — those are the easiest numbers to fake. Instead we track when a price genuinely drops and how it compares across the shops that stock it. A deal earns its place by being genuinely cheaper, not by shouting the loudest.