Brightpearl Reviews

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.

We couldn't manage our business without Brightpearl

Pros:

Brightpearl has significantly reduced our margin for error by giving us a centralized platform to manage all of our processes. We are a 2 person operations team managing a multi-thousand SKU catalog. Brightpearl's inventory management features have set us up to manage our catalog with ease. We have entirely automated our Order Management process as well. From the time an order is placed to the time and order is fulfilled and posted into Quickbooks, we don't have a single moment of manual intervention. This has saved us so much time and from so many errors. Our onboarding team ([sensitive content hidden] ) was AMAZING and set us up with some of the best processes we've ever had.

Cons:

Most integrations and add-ons required completely custom development work which was time and resource intensive. We're accustomed to the "Shopify" model with our technology partners that have 1-2 click integrations that you can then customize to meet your business goals.

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.

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.

Great Inventory Management

Comments: We use Bright Pearl for both in-store and online sales. Coming from the previous program we used, Bright Pearl was a huge step up in inventory tracking. You can know where each and every item is through the whole order process - from shelf to shipment.
I've also been greatly impressed with the help/support team for a couple reasons. First, the replies to your problems/queries are quick (and don't make you feel like you're talking to a robot). Second, when they tell you that they are working on a certain issue, problem, or "bug" that needs to be dealt with, they mean it. This support team actually follows through and makes changes and updates frequently, always trying to improve the software. That is something that, as a customer I really appreciate.

Pros:

- great inventory management - fast and current connection to online orders, stock, and inventory - good reports system - lots of apps available to help tailor the program to your business' needs

Cons:

While Bright Pearl is easy to use, sometimes the amount of manual steps you have to take with some of the processes are tedious. I would love to see more steps become automatic, and fields auto-populate. (I will say that, since we started using Bright Pearl, they've already improved somewhat in this area, though there are still many more to be done.

Excellent, intelligent platform

Comments: An intelligent platform that allows the business to report and develop it's strengths and weaknesses. As well as manage stock, customer orders and build information for the business. The features available suit a variety of business needs and the go to customer service and support system is vital.

Pros:

The abilities and reporting involved with controlling stock and orders

Cons:

We have maxed Brightpearl's abilities, but due to their expansive resources we are looking into their other analytics service to fulfill our requirements.

Great software

Pros:

Stock control is the most impactful and helpful

Cons:

The add ons which are required such as automation

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.

Getting Better and Better- 8 Months working with BP

Comments: After 6 months, i now have a functional product. I've tried several other Multichannel inventory systems and they all have issues, so it is to be expected.. I choose to stick with BrightPearl because of their potential. I am not using the accounting part yet because it doesn't save me time and doesn't have the functions for Amazon FBA returns...YET... I'm hoping they read this and put it on their "to do" list. The reports and inventory management are the basics I'm using right now. We have over 3000 skus and they are managing them well. it is saving me time and money when reordering and gives me the knowledge of what is selling well and what isn't. The money it is saving me with cutting edge inventory management is worth it. The rest is gravy. They are constantly updating and improving the product, So I can't wait to see what is next. I would recommend them, especially if you sell on Amazon FBA.

Pros:

Multi Channel inventory management - Including Amazon FBA Reports - to many to list The Accounting System ***The in house customer Service is exceptional. They deserve an award!!! They are the reason I'm a customer.***

Cons:

Set up was a long process. i was assigned to an outside company Ferrier Johnson. Avoid them if possible. They are still having "Growing Pains" and many features are in need of improvement. No time saved listing on ebay

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

Support is very slow

Comments: I like the services they provide but again, their team is very slow to find solutions when something happen to go wrong with their system.

Pros:

I like that it is very easy to navigate and the ability to centralize all inventory from multiple warehouses and vendors is critical.

Cons:

Their support is very slow to get an actual solution. Recently I had to provide examples with every single about the issue we were encountering almost as if I were doing the job for them. The longest they left me without a single update about the issue was 5 days and for the answer to be very simple and could have been resolved immediately if the correct person was in touch with us to begin with. Another solution to this would have just been to provide your team with this knowledge so that the problem would have not grown to what it is.

Inventory Planner

Pros:

Inventory Planner is a great tool to help with forecasting. It tells you what to purchase and when to purchase using its advanced forecasting tool. This really helps our team to never over or understock. It’s easy to import and export purchase orders and then forecast using the tool. It makes it easy to track inventory and lets us know how much to stock of each bundle. The product is so user friendly and easy to understand.

Cons:

Would've liked quicker issue resolution with customer support

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.

Cracks showing but nothing is perfect.

Comments: I have developed my business starting in 2011 with 1 staff member going to 10 staff today. Brightpearl overall is fantastic value for money given the extent of what it can offer an eccomerce company. However small unpolished aspects and glitches are now starting to cause real and serious problems for the efficiency of the business with the level of sales we are processing. Missing payments and orders which disappear and important details in the multi channel offerings which are missing paint the picture of a job not quite finished by the developers. Immensely frustrating when the supprt team offer no fixes to our problems. The bigger we grow the more severe the consequences of their bugs and issues. The support teams needs massive investment to keep up with brightpearl growth. Overall I would rate it 3 stars but it sounds like there isn't much that's better out there.

Pros:

Value for money. Versatile easy

Cons:

Support needs investment. They need to take responsibility for their bugs and issues

Excellent integrated software with solid support

Comments: We have used it for several years and on the whole it is a very good system.

Pros:

Ease of use, the integrated accounts package

Cons:

It is only suited to drop shippers, its not really designed for bespoke manufacturers as a standalone software

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.

Brightpearl - I couldn't sell on multi-channels without this piece of software

Comments: I knew from the outset that I would be selling across multiple channels including Amazon, eBay and our own website and so wanted software that could cope with the stock changes across each channel in live time. But as I was starting a new business wanted some accounting software too, well Brightpearl offers both and the accounting side of things is similar to Sage so is easy to get to grips with and our accountants were more than happy too.

Pros:

Ease of use Account package integrated into their core system Inventory readjusted automatically across all channels as items are sold

Cons:

Some aspects of the accounting could be more automated rather than relying on manual intervention Some areas when selling on ebay internationally need manual intervention, will be better when this is not required

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.

Excellent software for growing E-Commerce business

Pros:

As our company grew we needed a better system for inventory management and sales orders processing across multiple channels. Brightpearl was the perfect solution for us. Now we're able to easily track everything live in our warehouse and efficiently handle orders, POs, and returns all through one system. Without Brightpearl our company wouldn't have been able to expand to multiple warehouses across different states.Additionally, the Brightpearl implementation team was extremely helpful in getting us up and running with lots of training and fine tuning of the data to fit our needs.I'd definitely recommend Brightpearl to any company looking to expand and have a higher level of organization for their team.

Cons:

There were no major cons for us with this software.

Good company with great support

Comments: Brightpearl helps us manage our business and deal with managing stock and customer orders effectively.

Pros:

The support we are provided is really good and the staff is always knowledgeable.

Cons:

Sometimes it is lacking functionality and is limited in off the shelf api connections.

Manage your whole business from one system

Comments: Brightpearl is one of the few systems that allows multi-channel retailers/ wholesalers to manage everything - Customers, Marketing, Inventory and Accounting. An integrated system brings many benefits.

Pros:

Integrated system - marketing, sales, purchasing, inventory and accounting are all working on the same database Can deal with complex product ranges, seasons, sales channels and so on Strong links to the most popular ecommerce platforms

Cons:

Compared to Xero, Brightpearl's accounting functionality is weak. Accounting and related functions are cumbersome for non-financial staff to work with If you need to "assemble" your products - i.e. build up a product from a group of inputs - Brightpearl can only deal with this at a rudimentary level and then some of the usability starts to weaken

Everything in one place

Comments: Brightpearl really helped us consolidate many functions of our business in one place. Stock management, invoicing, accounts. Also f you want an online solution that can easily tie into your online store (we use Shopify) then i would recommend this.

Pros:

Mostly the fact that it's online and is generally pretty easy to use

Cons:

When things go wrong it's not always easy to find out how to fix the problem

Brightpearl Review

Comments: I've now been using Brightpearl (BP) for just under a year and I have found the system slick and modern. The ease in which you can import and export data from excel is amazing and saves so much time.
Entering sales orders is quick and easy as we are able to run Shiptheory through BP and link to our carriers. We are also able to link our website to BP allowing sales orders to be placed on line and go straight onto the system.
What I particularly like about BP it is never standing still and new ideas are always emerging, the new multi currency feature will be really useful for our company.
The support system is good and the personnel are helpful, efficient and reliable.
We have just renewed our package for next year. Great system.

Pros:

Importing and exporting via excel

Brightpearl keeps us on track

Comments: We have been with Brightpearl for a couple of years now, and the recent upgrades have seen some very useful features making it an easy software to use and increasing its value to our company. The bank feed allows for ease of matching transactions, while there are many inventory options, including multiple currencies. We wouldn't use any other software.

Pros:

Ease of entry and customability

Cons:

Am still learning much about the software, its a shame that the support is in a different timezone

We use brightpearl inventory management software

Comments: We have used brightpearl inventory management software for a few years, and find it very useful to manage our sales and dispatch. The reporting is very useful. Great customer support too.

Pros:

ease of use

Cons:

make a mobile app version