Brightpearl

Pros

Great for automating your eCommerce orders.

Cons

Finance system needs improving for handling offline customer credit accounts.

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

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.

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.

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.

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.