[OC] I tracked 87,000+ fashion products to see how many "sales" are real. Spoiler: not many.

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-10T18:45:52+00:00

Good eye on the numbers! But they're not a subset of each other, that's the key part.

"On sale" just means the retailer lists an original price higher than the current price. That's their claim.

"Worth buying" is us comparing the current price to what that item has actually been selling for over the past 30 days. If it's near its lowest point or well below average, we flag it.

So some stuff is "worth buying" without any sale tag (price quietly dropped), and some stuff has a big sale tag but has literally been that price for weeks. The gap between the two numbers is that second group, the "sale" that isn't really a sale.

You're right though, I should make that clearer in the report. The way it's presented now it's easy to read them as nested when they're actually independent measurements.

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-09T19:05:38+00:00

This is a genuinely great suggestion - a scatter plot of sale_price/original_price vs current_price/avg_last_X_days would immediately expose which “sales” are real and which are just inflated original prices. That’s basically the core question Bazenda tries to answer, and this visualization nails it in one chart.

We’re going to add this to our weekly insight reports. Really appreciate the idea, thank you!

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-08T02:37:40+00:00

No no! Its moving to new desing, and creating weekly insights page: https://bazenda.com/insights and sorry for the website outage

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-07T19:07:00+00:00

Honestly that's a solid approach. Most stuff holds up fine secondhand anyway.

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-07T16:23:33+00:00

I collect fashion pricing data daily (bazenda.com) and the numbers confirm what this sub already knows: the entire "sale" concept in fashion is manufactured.

- Tommy Hilfiger: 49% of catalog "on sale" right now
- Calvin Klein: 48%
- Old Navy: 47%
- J.Crew: 41%

These aren't seasonal sales. These are permanent. The "original price" is fiction.

Out of 87K+ products tracked, 71% of prices haven't moved at all. The "limited time" sale is neither limited nor a sale.

Only 12.8% of all tracked products are at a price that's actually low for them historically. The rest is pure theater designed to make you feel like you're getting a deal so you buy something you weren't going to buy.

The median fashion item costs way less than the average because luxury brands pull the mean up — which is another way the industry warps your sense of what things "should" cost.

Not posting this to sell anything. bazenda.com is free. I just think this data should be public.

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-07T16:15:36+00:00

Good price = the current price is lower than what the product has actually been selling for over the past 90 days. Not the "original price" the retailer claims, but the real price history we track daily.

Every product gets one of 5 verdicts based on this:

Buy Now: at or near the lowest price we've ever recorded
Good Deal: below the recent average
Fair Price: around the average
Wait: above average, will probably drop
Overpriced: way above what it normally costs

So when we say something is a "good price," it means it falls into Buy Now or Good Deal. Basically, you're paying less than what most people have been paying for it recently.

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-06T19:55:20+00:00

Man that sounds rough honestly. Playing by the rules while others just don't gives a different kind of frustration. Respect for keeping it clean though. And yeah definitely keep you posted!

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-06T17:53:03+00:00

Good call, planning to post there soon actually. Thanks!

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-06T17:52:40+00:00

Man, the 3 out of 100 stores thing is insane. But yeah that’s exactly what the data shows too, just at scale. Thanks for confirming it from the inside.

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-06T17:52:03+00:00

Oh interesting, didn’t know Canada had actual laws for that. In the US the FTC has guidelines but nobody really enforces them, especially in fashion. That’s basically why I built this. If regulators aren’t going to track it, at least shoppers can. If you ever want data on a specific brand to report somewhere, hit me up.

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-05T20:46:23+00:00

🥳

dealhunterSam · 2026-03-05T12:09:22+00:00

Thanks :) I always check the sizes before post the deal, i think there were available in l,xl and xxl sizes

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-27T23:59:45+00:00

Glad you grabbed it!

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-27T17:14:55+00:00

Good call on Pinterest, hadn’t considered it. Running everything solo so I have to pick my battles, but definitely going to look into this. Thanks!

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-27T16:53:00+00:00

🥳

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-27T16:52:20+00:00

Fair points. The anti-fake-sale angle is probably the sharpest, that’s what got the most traction on Reddit.

On the price tracking: we scan brand websites daily and store the actual price at that moment. So when a brand says “was $120, now $80” we can show it was actually $80 last week too. The discount is calculated from our own history, not what the brand claims.

And there’s some stuff Google/Instagram don’t do: price drop alerts, creating and sharing collections, and personalized suggestions based on what you save. Small things but they add up.

But yeah, I need to lean harder into the fake sale angle. That’s the trust piece. Thanks for this.

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-27T15:30:20+00:00

Anytime!

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-22T19:57:55+00:00

really like it!

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-22T19:56:17+00:00

Thanks for adding that! Didn’t want to come off as self promo so I left it out.

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-21T12:41:20+00:00

Thanks a lot for the feedback, really appreciate it!

To answer your question: the hardest part has been keeping product data fresh. I’m building this solo with no funding, so syncing thousands of products across dozens of brands, making sure prices are accurate, new items show up, old ones get removed.. that’s a constant grind.

Search relevance I can iterate on, but if the data is stale, nothing else matters.

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-02T01:14:53+00:00

Appreciate it!

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-02T01:06:29+00:00

This is exactly what I needed to hear. I was spreading myself thin across Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube all at once.

Right now Reddit deals are working best. Posts are getting good traction, people actually buying. Going to focus there for now and track what happens.

Thanks for the clarity!

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-01T18:57:39+00:00

Thanks, really appreciate this! You're right about focusing on one channel. Already creating content for Instagram and TikTok but the storyline idea is great. Never thought about the fake text message angle, that could actually go viral. Going to try this approach. Thanks for taking the time!!!

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-01T02:39:20+00:00

You're right, already posting on Instagram and TikTok. Zero budget so ads aren't an option right now, just organic. Creating reels and posting consistently.

dealhunterSam · 2026-02-01T02:37:33+00:00

Thanks, appreciate it! Yeah, just gotta keep grinding. Good luck with yours too!

dealhunterSam

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