Black Friday price glitch costs skintech brand $14m in sales revenue
A two-hour Black Friday glitch that affected Foreo's website globally and dramatically slashed the price of its revolutionary UFO smart masking device has cost the Swedish skintech brand US$10 million (S$13.6 million).
The beauty tool's usual retail price was US$279, but shippers were given the option of purchasing it for US$9.99 on the official website.
During that time, a total of 38,575 UFO devices were sold at a 96 per cent discount, of which 171 purchases were from Singapore. Foreo's two-day Black Friday sale had initially offered shoppers up to 50 per cent off its products.
Foreo founder Filip Sedic released a statement yesterday confirming that the company will honour all Black Friday orders made during the glitch.
He said in a statement: "When I heard about the extent of the glitch, I realised how big this mistake had cost us.
"(Having said that), there is nothing like the UFO on the market, and if news of our error (was) reaching thousands of people around the globe in just two hours, then our fans were clearly more eagle-eyed than us over the Black Friday madness."
The glitch is thought to have started around 9.30pm on Nov 29 when the site crashed the first time due to a surge of traffic, the statement said.
Technicians repaired the fault but failed to notice the pricing mishap, allowing shoppers to purchase the UFO device at a fraction of its normal price.
The site crashed again at 11pm, initiating further investigation.
With social media platforms buzzing about the glitch, 20 UFO devices were being processed per second globally at its peak. In the two hours, Foreo lost US$10.8 million in sales revenue.
It is understood the mistake was caused by human error that listed the UFO device at US$9.99 instead of the UFO-activated smart mask pack, which usually retails at that price.
Mr Sedic confirmed that all UFO orders will be shipped to everyone who completed their purchases last Friday.
He said: "While we lost US$10 million, we gained almost 40,000 new customers, and to me that is the silver lining to this error and the Christmas spirit."
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