The Price Is Just a Percentage — 21 Nykaa Fashion Picks

Seven hundred and fifty-three rupees, which is a strange enough number to be worth explaining. It is 65% off Rs. 2,149, and 65% is not this shirt's discount — it is this brand's discount. All eight of The Indian Garage Co's listings in our pull carry exactly 65%, on garments with MRPs from Rs. 1,749 to Rs. 2,699. The brand set a rate and the shop did the multiplication, which is why you are being asked for Rs. 753 rather than Rs. 749 or Rs. 799. Across the 223 discounted listings we read, 201 of them are exactly their MRP minus the stated percentage.

• Price: Rs. 753 (stated MRP Rs. 2,149)
• Key specification: Regular-fit striped shirt
• Discount: 65% off, which is Rs. 1,396
• Role: One of eight at exactly 65%
• Buying logic: the rate is the brand's, not the garment's

Nine hundred and forty-five rupees, again exactly 65% off. A stretch-denim jean and a cotton shirt cost very different amounts to make and carry very different margins, and here they carry an identical discount because the discount was applied to the brand rather than to the product. That is worth knowing when you compare two items from the same label on this site: the percentage will not distinguish them, because it was never calculated with either of them in mind.

• Price: Rs. 945 (stated MRP Rs. 2,699)
• Key specification: Slim-fit stretch jeans
• Discount: 65% off, which is Rs. 1,754
• Role: Same rate, different garment
• Buying logic: a shirt and a jean, one identical rate

Twelve hundred rupees at 60% off Rs. 2,999 — and all six BROADSTAR listings in our pull are Rs. 1,200, Rs. 2,999 and 60%, across men's and women's trousers in four colours and two fits. One MRP, one rate, one price, six products. This is the flat-rate pattern at its most extreme, and it makes the shopping decision refreshingly simple: there is no cheaper one to find, so pick the colour. Korean-fit trousers, incidentally, means a wide leg with a high rise and a lot of drape, which is a cut and not a country of origin.

• Price: Rs. 1,200 (stated MRP Rs. 2,999)
• Key specification: Wide-fit pleated trouser
• Discount: 60% off, which is Rs. 1,799
• Role: Six listings, one rate, one price
• Buying logic: one MRP, one rate, six products

Thirteen hundred and sixty rupees at 60% off. Seven Mabish listings appear in our pull and six of them are at exactly 60%, the seventh at 59% — which is what a rounding error looks like when a percentage is applied to an MRP that does not divide neatly. What you are buying is a two-piece cotton co-ord from a small Indian designer label, and the useful comparison is not against the Rs. 3,399 reference price but against the Rs. 1,200 BROADSTAR trouser above: similar money, more garment, different market.

• Price: Rs. 1,360 (stated MRP Rs. 3,399)
• Key specification: Two-piece cotton co-ord
• Discount: 60% off, which is Rs. 2,039
• Role: Seven listings between 59% and 60%
• Buying logic: six at 60%, one at 59% — that is rounding

Two thousand rupees at exactly 60% off Rs. 4,999. Eight Jack & Jones listings in this pull sit at exactly 60%, priced from Rs. 600 for a t-shirt to Rs. 2,000 for these jeans — and two more of the brand's listings, both pool sliders, sit at 25% and 35%. So the flat rate applies to a category rather than to the whole label, which is the more common arrangement: apparel at one rate, footwear at another. The Rs. 600 t-shirts from the same 60% group are the better arithmetic if you just want the label.

• Price: Rs. 2,000 (stated MRP Rs. 4,999)
• Key specification: Loose-fit jeans
• Discount: 60% off, which is Rs. 2,999
• Role: Dearest of the flat-60 group
• Buying logic: apparel at one rate, footwear at another

One thousand three hundred and seventy-seven rupees. No retailer chooses that number. It is Rs. 1,449 minus five percent, to the rupee, and it is the clearest evidence on this page of how prices are being generated here — the brand nominates a rate, the system applies it, and whatever emerges goes on the tag. Only 38 of the 223 discounted listings we read land on a round hundred. Elsewhere in Indian retail almost everything ends in 99; on this shelf you are asked for Rs. 1,377 and Rs. 1,056 and Rs. 828.

• Price: Rs. 1,377 (stated MRP Rs. 1,449)
• Key specification: Schiffli-embroidered midi dress
• Discount: 5% off, which is Rs. 72
• Role: The strangest price on the page
• Buying logic: Rs. 1,449 minus five percent, exactly

Fifteen hundred and twenty rupees, down from Rs. 1,599 — a saving of seventy-nine rupees, which is 5% and rounds to nothing you would notice. Seven of Outzidr's nine listings in our pull are at exactly 5% and the other two at 15%. A brand running a five percent rate is not having a sale; it is participating in one nominally, which is its right, and the badge on the tile will still say 'off'. Read the rupees. Seventy-nine of them is the entire offer.

• Price: Rs. 1,520 (stated MRP Rs. 1,599)
• Key specification: Tiered maxi dress
• Discount: 5% off, which is Rs. 79
• Role: The same 5%, again
• Buying logic: five percent is a nominal participation

One thousand and fifty-six rupees, which is Rs. 1,599 minus 34% to the rupee. Six colourways of this same puff-sleeve dress appear in our pull — brown, maroon, magenta, peach, pista and black — every one at Rs. 1,056 and 34%. Twenty Dresses is Nykaa Fashion's own label, and its eleven listings run between 29% and 35%, a six-point band. The outside brands on the same shelf run from 5% to 80%. A house label does not need to negotiate its own discount, so it does not swing.

• Price: Rs. 1,056 (stated MRP Rs. 1,599)
• Key specification: Puff-sleeve A-line midi dress
• Discount: 34% off, which is Rs. 543
• Role: One dress, six colours, one price
• Buying logic: the house label moves in a six-point band

Twelve hundred and six rupees. Rs. 1,799 minus 33%, to the rupee. Two U.S. Polo Assn. polos in this pull are at Rs. 1,206 and several more of the brand's listings sit at 33%, 34% and 35% — a tight cluster that is clearly one negotiated rate with rounding either side. The brand appears twenty-one times in our read and its rates run from 8% to 45%, which is wider than the house label's band and much narrower than the deep-discount labels'.

• Price: Rs. 1,206 (stated MRP Rs. 1,799)
• Key specification: Slim-fit cotton polo
• Discount: 33% off, which is Rs. 593
• Role: The other kind of odd number
• Buying logic: a tight cluster is one rate with rounding

Nine hundred and seventy-five rupees at 35%, and across eleven Twenty Dresses listings that is the highest rate we found. The band is 29% to 35% and it does not move outside it. Compare that with The Indian Garage Co at a flat 65% or PIMU at 80%: when a marketplace owns the label, the discount is a margin decision made once; when it is negotiating with an outside brand, the rate is whatever that brand will fund. Barrel fit, on a trouser, means wide at the thigh and tapering at the ankle.

• Price: Rs. 975 (stated MRP Rs. 1,499)
• Key specification: Barrel-fit cotton trouser
• Discount: 35% off, which is Rs. 524
• Role: Top of the house label's band
• Buying logic: a house label's discount is a margin decision

Six hundred and thirty rupees at 30%, which is Rs. 899 minus three-tenths, exactly. A skort is a skirt with shorts underneath and it is a genuinely useful garment in an Indian summer for anyone who has ever tried to sit down in a short skirt. Pure cotton is stated, which matters more than the rate: on this shelf a great many similar garments at similar prices are polyester blends and the listing will say so if you read it.

• Price: Rs. 630 (stated MRP Rs. 899)
• Key specification: Pure cotton skort
• Discount: 30% off, which is Rs. 269
• Role: Cheapest house-label pick
• Buying logic: read the fabric line, not the rate

Eleven hundred and thirty-six rupees at 29%, on the identical Rs. 1,599 MRP as the puff-sleeve dress four picks up that sells at Rs. 1,056. Same reference price, same label, five points of difference in rate, and eighty rupees between the two on the tag. That eighty rupees is the entire practical consequence of the house label's whole discount range — which is a useful thing to know before you spend any time comparing rates within it.

• Price: Rs. 1,136 (stated MRP Rs. 1,599)
• Key specification: Smocked sleeveless midi dress
• Discount: 29% off, which is Rs. 463
• Role: Bottom of the house band
• Buying logic: the whole house band is worth Rs. 80

One thousand and twenty rupees at 15% off Rs. 1,199. Outzidr's nine listings in this pull run at exactly 5% or exactly 15% and nothing else — two rates, applied wholesale. When a brand's discounts come in two flavours, the interesting question is what puts a garment in one bucket rather than the other, and the likeliest answer is age of stock rather than anything about the dress. At 15%, a Rs. 1,199 maxi becomes Rs. 1,020; at 5% it would have been Rs. 1,139.

• Price: Rs. 1,020 (stated MRP Rs. 1,199)
• Key specification: Cinched-waist maxi dress
• Discount: 15% off, which is Rs. 179
• Role: The 15% version
• Buying logic: two rates, and stock age decides which

Two thousand six hundred and twenty-five rupees at 57% off. Cider is the most-listed brand in our pull with nineteen items, and unlike the flat-rate labels its rates run right across the range — 57%, 55%, 52%, 51%, 50%, 49%, 48%, 47%, 46%, 42%, 40%, 37%, 32%, 29%, 25%. That is a brand pricing item by item rather than setting one rate, which is the exception on this shelf rather than the rule, and it means the percentage here does carry some product-level information.

• Price: Rs. 2,625 (stated MRP Rs. 6,099)
• Key specification: Floral knotted mini dress
• Discount: 57% off, which is Rs. 3,474
• Role: Dearest pick on the page
• Buying logic: the one brand pricing item by item

Twenty-one hundred and fourteen rupees at 25%, against 57% on the dress above. Five hundred rupees cheaper, less than half the rate, and both from the same label on the same day — which is exactly what you would expect from a brand that discounts by product rather than by contract. Linen blends are worth paying attention to in this category: linen creases magnificently and blends crease less, and the ratio is almost never stated.

• Price: Rs. 2,114 (stated MRP Rs. 2,799)
• Key specification: Linen-blend ruched top
• Discount: 25% off, which is Rs. 685
• Role: Same brand, half the rate
• Buying logic: a linen blend creases less, and never says how much less

Twelve hundred and twenty-one rupees at 63% off Rs. 3,299. Puma's eight listings in our pull run from 43% to 63%, so this is its ceiling — and it is a very different pattern from the flat-rate Indian labels earlier, where every item carried the same number. Global sportswear brands generally discount by line and by season rather than by contract, which is why a logo jacket from an old season can be at 63% while a current cap is at 43%.

• Price: Rs. 1,221 (stated MRP Rs. 3,299)
• Key specification: Logo track jacket
• Discount: 63% off, which is Rs. 2,078
• Role: Deepest rate from a global brand
• Buying logic: global brands discount by season, not by contract

Five hundred and seventy rupees at 43%, which is the shallowest of the eight Puma listings we read. Accessories rarely get the deep end of a sportswear brand's discount ladder because they do not go out of season the way a colourway does, and a plain adjustable cap is about as seasonless as apparel gets. At Rs. 570 it is also the cheapest thing on this page carrying a name most people would recognise.

• Price: Rs. 570 (stated MRP Rs. 999)
• Key specification: Adjustable baseball cap
• Discount: 43% off, which is Rs. 429
• Role: Cheapest branded pick
• Buying logic: accessories do not go out of season

Nine hundred and thirty-five rupees at 45% off, and that is the ceiling across twenty-one U.S. Polo Assn. listings whose rates run from 8% to 45%. The brand's core shelf clusters at 33% to 35% — the Rs. 1,206 polo earlier is typical — so this is an outlier at the top rather than the normal state. Worth noting for anyone reading brand names: U.S. Polo Assn. in India is a licensed brand rather than an American import, which affects nothing about the shirt and quite a lot about the reference price.

• Price: Rs. 935 (stated MRP Rs. 1,699)
• Key specification: Pure cotton printed t-shirt
• Discount: 45% off, which is Rs. 764
• Role: The brand's top rate
• Buying logic: the core shelf sits at 33-35%

Eight hundred and twenty-eight rupees, down from Rs. 899 — seventy-one rupees, or 8%, the smallest rate in these picks and the bottom of a range whose top we saw two picks ago at 45%. Both are cotton t-shirts from the same brand. Nothing about the garments explains the gap; what explains it is that one is on a promotion and one is not, and the site presents both as discounts in the same typeface. An oversized fit, incidentally, is a cut and not a size — order your usual one.

• Price: Rs. 828 (stated MRP Rs. 899)
• Key specification: Oversized cotton t-shirt
• Discount: 8% off, which is Rs. 71
• Role: Smallest badge in our picks
• Buying logic: two tees, one brand, 8% and 45%

One thousand rupees, exactly half of Rs. 1,999 — and this is one of only thirty-eight prices in our 223-listing read that lands on a round hundred. It happens here because the MRP was already a round-ish number and the rate was exactly half. Everywhere else on this shelf the arithmetic produces Rs. 1,377s and Rs. 1,056s. Broderie anglaise is the cut-and-embroidered cotton eyelet fabric, which is genuinely cool to wear and genuinely delicate to wash.

• Price: Rs. 1,000 (stated MRP Rs. 1,999)
• Key specification: Broderie anglaise dress
• Discount: 50% off, which is Rs. 999
• Role: A clean half off
• Buying logic: a round price is an accident here, not a decision

Eight hundred and fifty rupees at 15% off Rs. 999, from the same label that is at 50% on the dress above. Five H&M listings in our pull run at 50%, 50%, 50%, 45% and 15% — four on promotion and one not, on the same shelf on the same morning. That is the note to close on, because it is the whole article in one brand: the percentage beside a garment on this site is a fact about which promotion it is in, not a fact about the garment, and the only number that survives the comparison is the price.

• Price: Rs. 850 (stated MRP Rs. 999)
• Key specification: Loose-fit sweatshirt
• Discount: 15% off, which is Rs. 149
• Role: Where the same brand stops discounting
• Buying logic: the rate says which promotion, not which garment