A sister site of online retailer Zappos.com fumbled more than $1.6 million in the wee hours of Friday morning when a pricing-engine blip inadvertently made every product on that site available for no more than $49.95.
Aaron Magness, director of brand marketing and business development for Zappos Development, said in a blog post that 6pm.com would be honoring purchases made during the glitch, which, he said, took place between midnight and 6 a.m. PT that day.
Although this quote from a CNet.com article does describe a $1.6 million dollar mistake by the folks at Zappos, it also marks what may turn out to be one of the most savvy crisis management moves in recent history. By doing the opposite of what nearly any other business would have done and honoring the erroneous sales, Zappos has built an incredible amount of good will among their existing customers and seized upon the entire situation as an opportunity to further market themselves across both traditional and nontraditional media.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/