Brightpearl

Brightpearl is a fantastic all in one ERP system

Comments: Brightpearl is a fantastic all in one ERP system that is great for connecting all your eCommerce channels under one roof. They key to any eCommerce growth is being able to automate as much as possible and this is where Brightpearl excels. When we started using Brightpearl back in 2014 we were processing around 100 orders per month. In 2020 we are processing more than 100 orders per day and without Brightpearls automation this would not have been possible.

Pros:

Great for automating your eCommerce orders.

Cons:

Finance system needs improving for handling offline customer credit accounts.

Alternatives Considered: Rithum

Switched From: Sage 50cloud Accounting

All in One Ecommerce Software

Comments: All in one eCommerce solution, helped us consolidate 4 software programs into 1 integrated app. Great for small to medium size ecom companies and those wishing to grow rapidly by automating routine processes and tasks. Saves us hours each day with automation and syncing of orders and inventory to multiple channels.

Pros:

Multi-Channel inventory sync, accounting is integrated with the order fulfillment, CRM, and most of the functions you need to run a growing eCommerce business. They issue updates, bug fixes, and new features every few weeks. The software has come leaps and bounds forward in the past 2 years to become more stable, less buggy, with better automation and features. Nice to have all business functions located in 1 software rather than 5 different systems that constantly need synced and updated. Cloud based so you can work anywhere.

Cons:

As a US retailer there are a few UK oddities in the software but these are quickly being updated and changed to fit the US market. Customer support has also been improving since we started, but could be quicker to fix problems/ issue updates at times. They don't seem to understand at times that when something is broken, we can not run our business at all till it gets fixed. Some additional features and add-ons are not included in the base price of the software. They would be nice to have available but the price could get very expensive quickly and be out of budget for a small business. Would also like to see a quick way to back-up 'all' the data from the cloud locally in case of emergency or we needed it for another process. You can export data files and reports currently, but not the entire database at once.

Very expensive for little gain

Comments: Just too many things that BRightpearl doesn't do. Its website claimed that you could list directly from Brightpearl onto eBay but it turned out to be untrue as Brightpearl didn't support eBay Postage Policies (That's eBayspeak for shipping tables). Nor could it list directly to any of the Amazon websites, nor to Shopify or anywhere else. Yet other software can do all of that, and has Google Translate Professional built in so that you can list directly to Amazon Poland without you having to employ a translator. So Brightpearl just falls flat on its face in far too many areas compared to the competition. The worst thing is trying to leave. I am leaving and would like to keep read only access for a year to make it easy to check any warranty claims. Brightpearl have quoted £10,080 for that when full acess costs me less than half of that. So if you are considering BRightpearl, keep looking, there are much better deals available.

Pros:

The only thing that I really like about this software is that they have good support staff. I was initially attracted to Brightpearl because it included integrated accounts. It has taken me 6 years to realise that this was a false way of thinking as there is other software that integrates seamlessly with reasonably-priced good quality accounting software like Xero, Quickbooks and Sage. Essentially with Brightpearl you are paying a high price for an accounting system that is used by a relatively small number of users (online it says Brightpearl has about 1,000 users - that is a very small number to finance a piece of accounting software. Eventually I realised how much it was missing in other areas.

Cons:

The biggest drawback with Brightpearl is the small number of marketplaces it support compared to many of its competitors. They claim to integrate with Amazon, but this is only partially true. Amazon Europe have added 3 new marketplaces but BRightpearl have ingnored them where similar software providers have integrations at no extra cost. Brightpearl haven't added a single marketplace integration in 6 years, and the only one planned, OnBuy, a small marketplace unlikely to generate much revenue, comes at an extra cost. When I started with Brightpearl they were advertising it as the software to automate your online selling, but it was very limited as far as automation was concerned. After a couple of years they launched the Brightpearl Automation App. Funny that you should need an additional app, at extra cost, to do what the software was promising to do 2 years earlier. many things come at extra cost with Brightpearl but are available at no extra cost with other software. Brightpearl doesn't calculate VAT correctly. If you get an order from the Channel Islands, Brightpearl will add 20% VAT even though there is no VAT in th Channel Islands. (it does the same with the Canary Islands which also are not subject to VAT. It would be simply to write a filter to catch these and put correct 0 VAT on them, but they just don't seem to care if their customers are paying the tax men a bit more than they should be.

Why oh why is it so hard to find an awesome ERP in this space? Hold up! Brightpearl? Yes!

Comments: In the jungle of ERP for DTC brands, Brightpearl is the Jaguar, lurking in the shadows. Deadly (aka effective) but with less fanfare than the lions and the tigers. If you're doing multi-channel and need an ERP/WMS/OMS, get a demo!

Pros:

Seamless integration for our multiple channels of commerce. Cloud-based, no need for IT staff to maintain. Infrequently goes down. Never gone down at a critical time aka BFCM. Plays nice with Shopify, Amazon, retail, in-house orders.

Cons:

Training could be better for rank-and-file staff. Handling of sales tax (in multiple jurisdictions aka Wayfair ruling) could be better.

It's good enough to run my business on

Pros:

Brightpearl is both multicurrency and multi warehouse which is key to my business. It's easy to achieve this without heavy training.

Cons:

I dislike 2 things. I need multicurrency journeys and they don't supply plus the report writing is complex and difficult to customise.

BrightPearl Integration

Comments: From initial contact with [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN], to being led through the systems by [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and subsequent setup the experience has been excellent.

Pros:

Automation with BrightPearl is exceptional. Conditional rules make creating rules a breeze and saves hours and hours of time in various areas.

Cons:

The CRM is basic, but functional. It is not pitched as a key part of BrightPearl however so hard to really call it a con.

Amazing Company, amazing team!

Pros:

It's super practical, easy to use and understand and it helps to track way more than other services.

Cons:

It would be amazing if it could have more visual reports

A Great Small to Medium Size Business All-in-One Solution for Customer Relation Management Tool

Comments: The customer service is truly amazing. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] is definitely a rare breed in the area of marketing referrals. He conducted himself with a great deal of integrity when demo-ing the product for our company.

Pros:

What features I love about this software are the all-in-one solution that provides the ease of accessing customer information in one place. Instead of bouncing from various tabs attempting to retrieve customer specific details, this software collects all the data into one place.

Cons:

This software may not be the solution for companies who manufacture products. They do not provide this as an option in their inventory management system.

Fantastic option for Multi Channel Retail

Comments: I have been using Brightpearl for a few months and it has transformed the way we do business. Moving from an hourly clunky file transfer system to a direct API connection to Amazon and Ebay has been revolutionary for us. Add to that we were paying a percentage of turnover for the hourly clunky file transfer system and we now have a fixed fee, regardless of our turnover, makes it a real win.
I must give a mention to the accounts package which is a godsend for us. If you are a either scared of, or bored by accounts, then Brightpearl will take the worry and the pain away.

Pros:

Direct API connection to Amazon and Ebay Fixed monthly fee Accounts package integral to Brightpearl. Software improving every month Nice people to deal with

Cons:

The warehousing side is still a little under developed but this is being worked on No real sell through reporting or reports to help you forecast.

Not cheap, but absolutely invaluable and very powerful!

Comments: Started using Brightpearl a little over a year ago and have been delighted with it! We were long standing Shopify users, so really wanted an accounts and combined inventory management solution which would integrate seemlessly with Shopify. Brightpearl was the solution, the only solution we found which covered accounts and inventory!

Pros:

It has freed up lots of our time, streamlining many of our previously laborious admin processes. Cant imagine running our business without this tool now!

Cons:

The set up is honestly quite daunting, the software also took some getting used to. However, the email support provided by Brightpearl was exceptional and fast and before long (1-2 months) we were using Brightpearl very happily.

Great customer support

Pros:

Brightpearl provides great customer support. Shout out to [sensitive content hidden]. He's been very helpful and kind throughout all phases of the project. It's very easy to find the answer to your question in the BP help center.

Cons:

You'll have to be patient while working on the platform. Sometimes it's a little bit tricky to find what you want. The best advice is to keep discovering the platform and get ready to spend long hours reading the articles from the help center.

Brightpearl is well worth the investment!

Comments: Automation of processes in our business has been key in our growth. Brightpearl has been at the centre of that transformation. Great set up process initially with strong support and training. Great reliability, easy to use. We are pleased we made the investment.

Pros:

Brightpearl has helped to transform our business. It is easy to use, easy to integrate with other systems. We've never had any reliability or access issues. We are incredibly pleased that we made the decision to invest is such a great system.

Cons:

I have no complaints about the software!

Would Recommend Brightpearl

Comments: Overall the experience is very good. With the Automation App, orders are fulfilled direct to the warehouse by-passing customer services, and invoicing is completed automatically at the end of each day.

Pros:

Easy to use. Gives a full view of the business with order management, stock and accounting all together in the one product

Cons:

Revenue reporting on sales of products sold within bundles. Revenue is attributed to the bundled product and not to the individual product. Therefore manual manipulation of the exported data is needed.

Great for internet sellers

Pros:

I have been using Brightpearl for the past 10 years which is a sign I am a very happy customer. We find it very user friendly, convenient for the entire team to access data and work on relevant processes and we like the fact it is totally integrated so no systems issues.

Cons:

I don’t have any dislikes but I have requested features such as batch processing and fractional units

Manages the core of our business, finances and products.

Comments: We have been using brightpearl for several years now and the core function of the system has been to centralise around the accounts and stock management for our business. This means it's super easy to keep control of the business critical systems. The system has grown and expanded and as a small business I don't need a lot of this but it's there incase. The most important thing we have found is the super easy simple Brightpearl POS solution that is sharing the same core data for products/customers/payments as our website and accounts in real time so if the last item sells online then we don't over sell this in store at the weekend. We have two small showrooms and can have two separate pos channels that make it easy to deal with customers in store and telephone orders in the main program. Push sales from POS to backend and vice versa. It makes us more efficient and look more professional in store and on the phone. Even as a small business we have constantly changing stock and a large number of products (over 11,000) so need control of those as simply as possible. Brightpearl has done that for us along with accounts functionality. I hope as brightpearl expands it can keep true to it's roots of supporting small businesses with a system that would normally only be available to big business with big budgets. The core simple EPOS is just perfect for us with multichannel order routes to the dispatch desk.

Pros:

the simple EPOS systems linked into the core of the system in real time. You have to do things by the book and can't cut corners in processes.

Cons:

Sometimes you have to do things by the book and can't cut corners in processes.

Brightpearl Review

Comments: As a business, we have been using Brightpearl for a few years now and have had an incredibly positive experience. On the customer service level - both in person and online - we have had an incredibly effective and personable response rate, especially of recent, which has made our usage a whole lot easier. We have therefore learnt a lot more about our business and its direct Brightpearl relationship, giving us more insight into weaknesses, improvements and areas of strength. High praise to the financial side of Brightpearl as this is easy to use and navigate. We are looking forward to our close working relationship in the future as we are expanding our business and therefore constantly looking to refining our Brightpearl usage.

Pros:

Effective software, enabling access of the entire company to view and work as a team to work as a chain from start to finish in different parts of the UK in order to complete the entire part of the supply chain. Therefore leading to effective business management.

Cons:

Uninformed from the beginning about certain aspects (not down to Brightpearl directly) and therefore the small team need enlightening and training regarding certain elements that can be so easily taught and answers. Because Brightpearl can do so much, there is just so much to learn that perhaps we are not taking advantage of as a business.

BrightPearl Review

Comments: Implementation was super easy. Reporting wasn't overly complicated but you could still drill down to what was needed.

Pros:

Super easy to use. Nothing was over complicated

Cons:

As your company grows so does their price tag

Helped us scale efficiently

Pros:

We would have been unable to grow our company from 1 million to 3 without the help of the Brightpearl. It is great to be able to handle all stock movements, customer transactions and accounting in one place. The team have always been helpful and friendly and have felt like we had a partner in software as opposed to some large faceless organisation.

Cons:

Not much - If I am looking for one then the user interface can be a little tricky for newcomers to the team but once trained this does not seem to be a long term issue.

Broghtpearl the New ERP!

Comments: I have used Brightpearl for over 1 year and one thing is evident. Effectiveness, its very light and tabs load quickly, I can say for those who need a proper Enterprise management system, BP it is.

Pros:

It's intuitive and very easy to integrate with other eCommerce platforms like Shopify.

Cons:

It requires a bit of training to get started.

A Good Move - Improving All The Time

Comments: We carried out quite a bit of research and Brightpearl simply covered more of our requirements than anything else we came across. We setup Brightpearl aided by their installation service in Feb 2016 and its been a good stable platform since with very few problems along the way. We use Brightpearl for our accounting and inventory managment which syncs with our Magento and Ebay stores, it also leaves the door open to Amazon if we choose.
For us, there are a few things that could be better to suit our needs, this mainly due to the limited stock update import size from CSV, limited size of updates over the Brightpearl to Magento API. Certain EPOS functions such as easier returns/credits and ability to utilise product custom options in EPOS could be improved / included. It is also crying out for easier options to integrate a decent customer account/loyalty system. Brightpearl however, did still provide more than other systems we looked at. Taking above in to account, Brightpearl without doubt has been a good move for us and we have learned to work around most of our issues which are most likely specific to us. We as a company could never go back to what we had before and I would say compared to the previous system, Brightpearl saves us around 6 hours per day in staff time but has also added much improved reliability to stock levels on the website and Ebay. A year on and we do feel positive about being on board with Brightpearl. Support (Free) is pretty good and the system is improving all the time, with what seems like quarterly updates including extra features and better usability. I understand that a brand new EPOS app is on the way soon and they are following that with a new Brightpearl to Magento API connector which will vastly improve performance with large inventory/product data updates, unfortunately this does not include extended functionality to cover our particular requirement - : ( My advice to anyone thinking about going ahead is spend the time prior to installation and get your product data, sku's etc spot on first. As long as you get your data correct and in sync with your website you should not run in to any problems.

Excellent system and service

Pros:

Integrates seamlessly with our e-commerce site and syncs inventory levels perfectly. We use the system to manage our sales orders and fulfilment, purchasing, inventory and demand forecasting. The Customer support Team are knowledgeable and always quick to respond.

Cons:

What like some more customisable features and the ability to change certain layouts. New features can take a little while.

A comprehensive back office system for a wholesale business

Comments: We have used Brightpearl for nearly four years now. It was probably more than we needed initially but we decided it was worth the investment to carry us through early business growth. It was, and from set-up it has been the backbone to an 8x increase in turnover. As a distributor, our large wholesale orders (hundreds of lines) sometimes test the capacity but that has been continually improved. Having the API and being able to integrate with Manifest for taking orders online was a huge efficiency for us, and are now looking forward to a possible integration with a barcode system. In general support have always been very efficient. We have never had to leave any issue or request 'unsolved' which is good to say after four years, and I have appreciated that support tickets get escalated promptly where necessary to get to a practical solution quite quickly.

Pros:

Very comprehensive

Cons:

Sometimes feel it's geared towards ecommerce more than wholesale

Excellent ERP/CRM for English speaking users

Comments: We´ve been with Brightpearl for about 6 years now and have been very happy with how easy Brightpearl is to use. It is extremely intuitive and does practically everything you need to run a business. Inventory control, Purchase Orders, Invoicing, etc... If your business is in the UK or the US the tax codes are easy to set up and manage. We even have it connected to two Shopify stores drawing from the same stock using two different price lists for sales. The only downside we´ve had with the program is our business is located in Spain and there are tax laws here that make some of Brightpearl unusable for us. Otherwise it´s been a great experience.

Pros:

Ease of use. Really easy to learn and manage.

Cons:

We´re a business located in Spain and the program is not made for our country´s tax laws and we´ve had to create some workarounds to make certain features work.

Great all round platform for B2B sales management

Comments: We moved to Brightpearl in 2011 and haven't looked back.
Our business takes orders via the phone, email, PO and online and Brightpearl lets us easilly serve our customers in the way that they want to be served. There are better standalone accounting packages, inventory management tools or CRM tools - but to have them all in one place saves us a lot of headaches - Brightpearl is our single source of truth for our business. Where we have functionality gaps, we have been able to use their API to extend the core functionality to meet our business needs.

Pros:

All in one package for CRM, Inventory and Accounts User-friendly interface

Cons:

Slow / buggy releases Lack of automation options (we use the API to fix this)

We'd be lost without Brightpearl

Comments: We've used Brightpearl for a number of years, over that time the functionality has grown hugely and positive changes continue. We're an International Schoolwear business and we really couldn't function without Brightpearl. We supply customers all over the world and Brightpearl allows us to manage our sales, stock, accounts and ecommerce system efficiently keeping all our information upto date. It's fairly intuitive to use and easy to teach to new employees.

Pros:

Intuitive and easy to use.