An online retailer recently lost $1.6 million because of a glitch in its pricing engine that capped the pricetag on all items at $49.95. Total loss to the retailer: $1.6 million. But not all that money was badly spent.

The mistake happened on a recent Friday when the site’s pricing engine malfunctioned. The glitch made sure that for about six hours, nothing at 6pm.com (sister site to shoe retailer Zappos) cost more than $49.95.

Anybody who shopped the site between midnight and 6 a.m. got a pleasant surprise — especially if they were buying, say, a $700 pair of Bruno Magli shoes or a $2000 GPS system.

The site sells brand name merchandise at deeply discounted prices. But not that deeply discounted.

Once the site owners realized the problem and corrected the mistake, they were faced with what do to about all those insomniacs who bought items from their site at the inadvertent markdown.

Their decision: Honor the purchases and eat the losses.

Which likely bought 6pm.com more good (free) publicity and customer goodwill than they could have purchased with that $1.6 million.