I noticed that before big sales like WB fest, prices on items jump up sharply, and then drop during the actual sale. So does that mean a 50% discount isn't a real discount? Or is it just a coincidence?
It's definitely not a coincidence - this practice happens on WB and other marketplaces, and it's not even against the law, just a game with the base price. To figure out if a discount is real, don't compare the price to what it was a week ago on the site itself - check the price history through services like Yandex.Market. If an item cost 500 rubles for a month, then jumped to 1000, and then dropped to 500 with a "50% off" label, that's not a discount, it's just a return to the normal price.
This practice does actually exist, and it's called "price anchoring." Before major sales, sellers often raise the price of goods so they can lower it later and show buyers a big discount percentage. It looks like a 50% discount, but in reality the product might not be much cheaper than it was a couple weeks ago.
On Wildberries this is especially common because the platform doesn't track price history in real time for buyers - there's no built-in chart showing how often and how prices change. Sellers know this and take advantage of it. It's especially noticeable before WB fest, when everyone's expecting big discounts - that's when the psychology kicks in: we see a red price tag with a discount and think we caught a great deal, when really we're paying almost the same as on a regular day.
Here's a simple tip: if you spotted something long before the sale, remember the price or take a screenshot. Before the promotion, check whether the discount is actually worth it or if it's just a visual trick. There are also browser extensions that track price history on marketplaces - they help you catch real deals.
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