A small Chinese company specializing in selling washing machines is facing a potential loss of 30 million yuan ($4.2 million) after an employee mistakenly labeled products with the wrong prices.
Little Swan Dongshan Franchise Shop, a small business based in Anhui, China, has been forced to ask customers to cancel their orders after one employee’s blunder caused a 20-minute online shopping spree that could result in a net loss of $4.2 million. Chinese news outlet Red Star News reported that on August 28, over 40,000 orders for various washing machines were placed on the small company’s Tmall online store until someone noticed the pricing errors and took the store offline. In that 20 window, Little Swan sold 70 million yuan worth of washing machines for only 40 million yuan, which means it might have to incur losses of $30 million yuan if forced to honor the orders.