We read 192 women's tops and dresses from AJIO's own search on 6 September 2026. The shelf runs Rs. 100 to Rs. 1,549 at a median of Rs. 420, and 150 of the 192 are under Rs. 600 — tops at a median Rs. 349, dresses at Rs. 459. The median badge is 73%, and it measures the brand rather than the bargain: XQsee's 15 listings are a median Rs. 248 at 89% off against stated MRPs of Rs. 2,147–2,364, while FIG's 14 are dearer at Rs. 382 and only 49% off against MRPs of Rs. 399–799. Thirty-one listings share one stated MRP of exactly Rs. 999. And AJIO returns no rating or rating count for any of the 192, so on this shelf the price and the description are all you have.

We read both platforms' dress listings within the same hour on 6 September 2026: 68 from Myntra, 80 from Nykaa Fashion. Myntra's median dress is Rs. 757, Nykaa Fashion's is Rs. 1,625; 58 of Myntra's 68 are under Rs. 1,000, against 3 of Nykaa Fashion's 80, and 17 Nykaa Fashion dresses cost more than any dress on the Myntra pages we read. But this is not one dress priced twice: of 45 brands on one shelf and 26 on the other, only Globus appears on both, and not with the same garment. The sharper difference is evidence — Myntra showed a rating on 51 of 68 listings, with a median of 690 ratings behind each, while Nykaa Fashion showed none on any of its 80.

AJIO's saree, co-ord set, women's heels and women's handbag listings held 163 distinct items on 1 September 2026, priced from Rs. 222 to Rs. 4,499 — and 95 of them cost under Rs. 800, with 23 under Rs. 500. Three of the four categories have a median selling price below Rs. 810; only handbags sit higher, at Rs. 1,279, with the shallowest median discount at 60 per cent. The percentages on this shelf are close to useless for choosing: 95 listings are at 70 per cent off or more, and the MRPs they are calculated from repeat across unrelated products. Thirteen listings — handbags and heels from five brands — share an MRP of exactly Rs. 1,999 while selling between Rs. 460 and Rs. 1,279, ten share Rs. 4,999 across three categories, and eight pairs of heels sharing a Rs. 2,995 MRP all sell at exactly Rs. 779.

We read both retailers' saree shelves on 1 September 2026 — 41 listings on AJIO, 42 on Nykaa Fashion — and they turn out to be two different tiers of the same garment. AJIO's median saree costs Rs. 805 against Nykaa Fashion's Rs. 1,720, and 36 of AJIO's 41 listings sit below Nykaa Fashion's median price. Under Rs. 800, AJIO had 20 sarees and Nykaa Fashion had two; above Rs. 2,000 the position reverses, with fourteen Nykaa Fashion listings against one. AJIO's floor is Rs. 222 for a printed saree; Nykaa Fashion reaches Rs. 4,636. The brands do not overlap at all, so no same-saree comparison is possible. AJIO discounts everything between 33 and 84 per cent, which makes the badge useless for choosing; Nykaa Fashion's range reaches down to 5 per cent, the only place on either shelf where the MRP looks like it is doing real work. Neither site published a single customer rating.

Myntra's four kurta listing pages carried 131 distinct listings on 1 September 2026, priced from Rs. 364 to Rs. 1,992 — and exactly one of them sat at its MRP. The other 130 were discounted, with a median of 70 per cent off and 38 listings at 75 per cent or more. When a shelf is uniformly 70 per cent off, the percentage stops describing a sale. Counting the MRPs shows why: there are 102 distinct selling prices across those 131 listings but only 49 distinct stated MRPs, and Rs. 2,199 appears as the reference price on 13 separate listings from different sellers, whose actual prices range from Rs. 435 to Rs. 704. The numbers that do separate listings are the rupee price — 96 under Rs. 1,000, 21 under Rs. 500 — and the rating count, where 52 listings carry 1,000 or more and 33 carry none at all.

We read all 240 answers on Myntra's FAQ on 1 September 2026, and the single most-searched fact about Myntra returns is not in any of them. Five separate answers reach the point where a number belongs and say “within the specified return/exchange period (check product details page for the same)” instead. Myntra's own listing strings say “Easy 14 days returns”, with 10 days on Fine Jewellery and a “Return and Exchange not available” variant, so the window belongs to the item, not to the platform. What the FAQ does commit to is refund speed, and it depends entirely on how you paid: 2 hours to Myntra Credit, 1 day for UPI, wallets and NEFT, 5 days for cards, 7 for netbanking — and 7 to 10 days if you cancelled the order rather than returned the item. Instant Refunds excludes self-ship returns and some PIN codes, the COD fee and donations are never refunded, and a declined return means no refund at all.

Myntra's women's saree listing returned 34 sarees under Rs. 1,500 on 31 August 2026, from a KALINI printed saree at Rs. 450 to a Parmila Fashion sequinned organza at Rs. 1,499, median Rs. 913. Fifteen sit in the Rs. 1,000–1,499 band, thirteen between Rs. 500 and Rs. 999 and six under Rs. 500. The badges run from 42 to 90 per cent, and they track the seller's stated MRP rather than the price: the 90 per cent belongs to the Rs. 1,499 saree because it claims an MRP of Rs. 14,975, ten times its own price, while the two smallest badges belong to two of the more expensive listings. Twenty-five of the 34 carry ratings, median 4.06 — and the best-rated, all about you's Rs. 1,457 satin at 4.5 from 15,842, sits beside a Rs. 1,431 saree rated 2.2.

The first page of Myntra's women's dress listing, read on 31 August 2026, returned 34 dresses — and not one of them asks more than Rs. 1,499. Prices run from Rs. 450 for a 2013 USK COLLECTION crepe dress to Rs. 1,499 for a Marks & Spencer cotton mini, with a median of Rs. 767 and 22 of the 34 between Rs. 500 and Rs. 999. Discount badges run 43 to 84 per cent, and they measure the stated MRP rather than the dress: the median listing claims an MRP 2.98 times its own price, LULU & SKY claims 6.2 times and Libas 1.7. Where this shelf is unusually strong is evidence — 27 of 34 are rated and 17 carry more than 1,000 ratings, led by aayu's georgette wrap at 4.4 from 20,430. The seven unrated listings include the biggest badge on the page.

We pulled Myntra's lehenga, blazer and dupatta listings on 30 August 2026 — 96 of them, Rs. 299 to Rs. 3,499, median Rs. 1,037, badges from 0 to 88 per cent. The eight listings badged zero are the tell: two Soch dupattas, two Rangmanch by Pantaloons, a LA FEMINAE, two H&M blazers and a Peregrine by Pantaloons, every one from a brand with its own stores and every one listed at exactly its stated MRP. Sangria, Myntra's own in-house label, is the mirror image at a median 74 per cent across 16 listings, topping out at 88 on a girls' lehenga priced Rs. 935 against a stated Rs. 7,999. The best-evidenced item on the whole shelf is a Rs. 377 Dupatta Bazaar chiffon dupatta with 4,111 ratings at 4.5. Four blazer listings state a fractional MRP of Rs. 5,224.80.

We pulled 113 kurta set, dupatta and palazzo listings from AJIO's own search data on 30 August 2026. Dupattas run Rs. 81 to Rs. 792 (median Rs. 315), palazzos Rs. 180 to Rs. 666 (median Rs. 356) and kurta sets Rs. 299 to Rs. 1,219 (median Rs. 650). The arithmetic that matters: a median dupatta plus a median palazzo comes to Rs. 671, more than the median complete set at Rs. 650 — and the set includes the kurta too. The discount badge tracks the number of garments rather than the price, climbing from 58 per cent on one-piece dupattas to 78 per cent on multi-piece sets. AVAASA MIX N' MATCH, Reliance's own label, is both the cheapest brand here (median Rs. 254) and the least discounted (49 per cent). Not one of the 113 listings carries a rating.

We pulled eight Myntra category pages on 28 August 2026 - socks, boxers, handkerchiefs, caps, men's vests, men's and women's T-shirts and women's tops - and 172 of the 274 listings sell at Rs. 500 or under, from Rs. 152 to Rs. 499 with a median of Rs. 390. Twenty-three of them carry no discount at all: the price equals the stated MRP, and they come almost entirely from brands with shops - Jockey, H&M, Peter England, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, U.S. Polo Assn., Decathlon. Those same 23 carry the heaviest customer evidence on the shelf, including an H&M cotton tee at Rs. 499 with 79,821 ratings. At the other end, 56 listings badge 70 per cent or more and every one belongs to an online-first label: Teakwood Leathers at a flat 70 across six listings, Imsa Moda at 83, and a BULLMER two-pack at Rs. 391 against a stated Rs. 2,998. Sort by rating count, not by badge.

We pulled every product on uniqlo.com/in on 27 August 2026 - 357 of them - and the catalogue turns out to carry just fourteen list prices, each one ending in 90: Rs. 290, 490, 690, 990, 1,290, 1,490, 1,990, 2,490, 2,990, 3,490, 3,990, 4,990, 5,990 and 9,990. A hundred and seven products, three in every ten, are priced Rs. 1,490. Nothing on the site costs Rs. 1,349 or Rs. 2,199. Sixty-eight products are marked down, and every markdown lands on a price that already exists on the ladder, 38 of them on Rs. 990 exactly - so a Uniqlo cut moves a garment down a rung rather than producing a new number. Uniqlo publishes no MRP here at all, so no card on this page shows one. Twenty-three products are seated, Rs. 290 to Rs. 9,990, with rating pills only where a real count exists - and only 85 of the 357 have one.

We read 100 listings across Myntra's men's shorts, women's shorts and women's skirts shelves on 27 August 2026 - every one returned a price, an MRP and an image - and seated 21 of them, Rs. 305 to Rs. 983. The selling prices of all three aisles sit in the same band, but the discount badges do not: the median is 47 per cent on men's shorts, 55 on women's shorts and 66 on women's skirts. The gap is entirely in the stated MRP. A U.S. Polo Assn. lounge short sells at Rs. 713 off a stated Rs. 849, a 16 per cent badge; a satin maxi skirt sells at Rs. 824 off a stated Rs. 3,999, a 79 per cent badge. Rs. 111 apart in what you pay, Rs. 3,150 apart in claimed worth. We also found Myntra pooling rating counts across style families - four U.S. Polo listings all show 9,383 ratings - and one Roadster short listed three separate times.

We read both storefronts on 27 August 2026 - Uniqlo's entire 357-product India catalogue and 100 listings across three Myntra shelves - and they price in opposite ways. Uniqlo uses fourteen list prices, every one ending in 90, with 107 products at Rs. 1,490 and no MRP published anywhere; its 68 current markdowns all land on prices the ladder already uses, 38 of them on Rs. 990 exactly. Myntra prices each listing against its own MRP, and the badge tracks the aisle rather than the garment: a median 47 per cent on men's shorts, 55 on women's shorts and 66 on women's skirts, on selling prices that overlap. The evidence runs the other way - 71 per cent of Myntra listings carry ratings, with counts to 18,975, against Uniqlo's largest count of 60 - though Myntra pools those counts across style families.

The women's answer to our Bewakoof capsule: 18 pieces read off the brand's own tops, shirts, jeans, dresses and jackets pages on August 27, 2026 — and this time the job was filtering, because Bewakoof's women's walls run on slogan prints and cartoon licences. Every pick here is plain, textured or washed, never printed, inside one neutral band of black, white, beige, brown and blue denim with sky blue and sage as the two soft accents. The crowds did the ranking: the two biggest in our whole read, 974 and 966, sit on one slim-straight ankle jean in two washes, and the tops wall's two largest, 964 and 963, sit on the same plain textured top in black and mocha — the quiet pieces are what Bewakoof's buyers actually purchase most. Three picks minimum per category, prices Rs. 899 to Rs. 1,999, the full edit Rs. 23,362, the nine-piece starter Rs. 10,321. Linen for June, dark denim for the monsoon, three layering weights for winter: one closet, all three seasons.