How the Shadow Score Works
Every deal on ShadowMerchant has a score from 0–100. Here is exactly how it's calculated — and why commission rates have nothing to do with it.
🛡️ Our Conflict of Interest, Disclosed Upfront
ShadowMerchant earns a small affiliate commission when you buy through our links. This is how we keep the service free.
Commission rates are not an input to our scoring formula. The score is calculated from price history, discount depth, and product ratings — data that exists before any commission relationship is considered. A product with a higher commission rate does not score higher. A product with zero commission can score 100/100.
The Formula
The raw rupee amount you save. A ₹3,000 saving on a ₹5,000 phone matters more than the same percentage off a ₹100 item. Capped at ₹10,000 to prevent outliers from dominating.
The percentage off the original MRP. Weighted alongside absolute savings so both cheap-but-deep-discounted items and expensive-with-moderate-discount items can rank well.
Higher-ticket items (₹15,000+) receive a higher tier score because the absolute financial decision is more significant. A 20% off ₹20,000 laptop deserves more visibility than 20% off a ₹300 accessory.
30-day price history analysis. We track the actual selling price of each product over the past month. If today's price is genuinely below the 30-day average, this component scores high. If the platform inflated the MRP before discounting, this score stays low.
Product rating × log of review count. A 4.5-star product with 10,000 reviews scores higher than a 4.8-star product with 12 reviews. We trust volume alongside quality.
Deals decay over 36 hours. A deal scraped 1 hour ago scores higher than the same deal scraped 30 hours ago, all else being equal. This prevents stale inventory from cluttering the top.
What the Score Means
🏆 Great Value
80–100
👍 Good Deal
60–79
🆗 Fair Deal
40–59
😐 Low Score
0–39
🌐 Platform Fairness
Products from Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Meesho, and Nykaa are scored using the same formula. No platform receives preferential treatment. Platforms with historically inflated MRP (like Meesho) have a platform-aware MRP cap applied before scoring, so a 75% discount on a 2.5× inflated MRP is treated honestly.