Who is behind LEFO Search
LEFO Search is an independent project, built and run by one person. No newsroom, no investment fund, no in-house store: a shopping search engine built on a simple idea — show only deals that are genuinely worth it, from sellers you can trust.
How it works, concretely
When you search for a product, the engine queries the Google Shopping, Amazon and eBay catalogues, merges the results and cleans them up: it removes duplicates, discards anomalous prices (too low to be true, or inflated to fake a discount) and recognises the product condition — new, refurbished or used. Results stay cached for at most 15 minutes, then they are collected again.
The deal score: the formula
Every deal gets a score from 0 to 100 that is the sum of six parts, each with a fixed maximum: price versus the median of the search, declared discount, rating, store reliability, number of reviews and product condition. A deal that is excellent on all six really does reach 100, and the number on the badge is exactly the sum of the six lines you see when you hover over it.
Weights, curves, an example computed by the real code and the limits of the method are in the deal score guide: that page reads the numbers from the very function that applies them to the results, so it cannot describe a formula other than the one in use.
Below 60 points the number stays visible but with no merit label: an average deal is not "a deal", yet the score helps you compare it with the others.
What the score does not do: no store can pay to improve its position. Affiliate commissions do not enter the formula — a deal from a store that pays us nothing can happily sit above one from Amazon.
How the project sustains itself
Through affiliate programmes, disclosed on every page: if you buy through a link on the site, the seller may pay us a commission. The price you pay is the same. There are four programmes: Amazon EU, eBay Partner Network, the Awin network (for partner stores such as Imou, Narwal, Gshopper, Dowinx and Ottocast — their codes are on the discount codes page) and Netsons. The details, programme by programme, are in the transparency notes.
The limits, stated plainly
- Prices come from external sources and may change between our collection and your click: the seller's site always prevails.
- Condition detection (new/refurbished/used) is automatic and can occasionally be wrong: always check the store's product page.
- We do not cover every store out there: if a better deal exists elsewhere, we do not see it.
Contact
Reports, data errors, privacy requests: use the contact form. GDPR requests are answered within 30 days.