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Brightpearl

Brightpearl

Overview

What is Brightpearl?

Brightpearl’s retail operations platform is designed to handle peak trading, integrates with the full retail tech ecosystem, and is omni-channel native. Additionally, the vendor says their solution is the system of record for key trading data, provides real-time trading…

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Recent Reviews

Brightpearl by Sage is great!

10 out of 10
March 28, 2024
We changed to Brightpearl by Sage mainly for the automation and ease of use. The direct API integrations with Shopify Plus are great. We …
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TrustRadius Insights

Brightpearl is a versatile platform that is used by various departments within an organization to streamline their operations and improve …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is Brightpearl?

Brightpearl’s retail operations platform is designed to handle peak trading, integrates with the full retail tech ecosystem, and is omni-channel native. Additionally, the vendor says their solution is the system of record for key trading data, provides real-time trading insights and is automated…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee required
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.brightpearl.com/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

Sales Invoicing | Brightpearl

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Setting up Ad-lister with BrightPearl

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Brightpearl + Avalara Demo

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Add Products Via Upload | Brightpearl

YouTube

Brightpearl: The Retail Software for Omnichannel Growth

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Brightpearl?

Brightpearl’s retail operations platform is designed to handle peak trading, integrates with the full retail tech ecosystem, and is omni-channel native. Additionally, the vendor says their solution is the system of record for key trading data, provides real-time trading insights and is automated so users can stay in control and manage by exception.

According to the vendor key differentiators include:
  • Software and Service. Service is an integral part of Brightpearl's offer. The vendor says their retail consultants get users live three times faster than traditional ERP, always for a fixed cost. And the in-house team is available throughout, from tech support to ongoing business consulting.
  • Built for Retail. Brightpearl is built only for the retail sector. This means: configuration not coding, designed for use by merchants not IT staff, every new feature is relevant, and their integrations and ecosystem are 100% retail.
  • Designed to Scale. Whether it’s seasonal peaks, promotions or sustained growth, merchants need an ops platform that can handle the volume. The vendor says they stand by their numbers: orders, SKUs, channels, reporting and financials fit for multi-million dollar merchants.

Brightpearl Features

  • Supported: Sales Order Management
  • Supported: Inventory Management
  • Supported: Inventory Planning
  • Supported: Shipping & Fulfillment
  • Supported: Warehouse Management
  • Supported: Retail Accounting
  • Supported: Purchasing & Supplier Management
  • Supported: Workflow Automation
  • Supported: Reporting
  • Supported: Payments
  • Supported: Analytics

Brightpearl Screenshots

Screenshot of Customer timeline giving you insight into pending orders, previous purchases and potential marketing opportunitiesScreenshot of Deep insight in your customers, product and sales channel through Brightpearl's Minubo integrationScreenshot of Fully integrated POS for access to all product inventory information at the tillScreenshot of Managing suppliers and purchasing inventory is quick and easy, says the vendorScreenshot of Provide top-notch service by having access to your customers’ full interaction history and personalize your marketing communication with product-interest tagging.Screenshot of Brightpearl’s flexible inventory management has all of the features you need to stay in control of your inventory and make fast, effective business decisions. Redistribute your staff towards growth strategies and reduce the time spent on costly admin overheads.Screenshot of Inventory Planning. With Brightpearl’s integrated inventory demand planning solution, understand exactly how your inventory is performing so you can put your time and money into the most impactful areas of your business. Identify trends to ensure you have the right products at the right time.Screenshot of Intuitive and easy-to-use POS, access all inventory across multiple locations alongside full customer order and communication history.Screenshot of Brightpearl’s integrated accounting is built specifically for retail and wholesale businesses, providing real-time insight into sales performance, profitability and costs across all your channels, all from the same system you use to manage sales, purchasing, inventory, customers and suppliers. Make the right decisions for your business in order to manage cost, reduce risk and remain agile in an ever-changing trading environment.Screenshot of Brightpearl’s intelligent process automation has all of the features you need to speed up order processing, reduce fulfillment latency and costs, and automate your entire order-to-cash process.

Brightpearl Integrations

Brightpearl Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

Stitch Labs (discontinued), QuickBooks Commerce, and Linnworks are common alternatives for Brightpearl.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.1.

The most common users of Brightpearl are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(294)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Brightpearl is a versatile platform that is used by various departments within an organization to streamline their operations and improve efficiency. Users have imported their client databases and categorized clients based on their profession, allowing them to generate accurate target lists for mailings. The operations team relies on Brightpearl to fulfill orders, enter shipping information, and manage inventory levels. The product management team utilizes the platform to collect and analyze campaign data, determine popular products through sales data, and manage SKUs and technological functions.

Brightpearl serves as a comprehensive solution for sales, inventory, marketing, and contact management. It is particularly helpful in keeping track of inventory and customer information, allowing users to integrate with other platforms such as Amazon and Shopify. The platform fulfills the organization's needs for stock management and invoicing. However, some users have found the CRM and reporting functions to be lacking. Brightpearl provides valuable insights into daily financial reports, marketing strategies, and customer behavior, enabling users to log calls, send emails, and track spending trends. Furthermore, the software is praised for its ability to simplify inventory management, order processing, and customer service, helping businesses save time and improve shipping efficiency. Overall, Brightpearl offers a range of use cases that address accounting, inventory, sales tracking, and customer management needs across multiple departments within an organization.

Positive Pros:

  1. User-Friendly Interface: Many reviewers have praised the user-friendly interface of the product, stating that it is easy to navigate and intuitive to use. Users have appreciated how quickly they can learn and adapt to the system, making their experience more enjoyable.
  2. Efficient Performance: Several customers have highlighted the efficient performance of the product. They have mentioned that it carries out tasks swiftly and effectively, saving them time and increasing their productivity. The smooth operation has been a key factor in users' satisfaction with the product.
  3. Helpful Customer Support: A notable number of reviewers have expressed appreciation for the helpfulness of the customer support team. Customers have felt supported throughout their journey with the product, as representatives promptly address their queries and provide valuable assistance when needed. This responsive support has contributed positively to users' overall experience.

Confusing User Interface: Many users have found Brightpearl's user interface to be confusing, leading to difficulties in completing tasks. The layout and organization of features are not intuitive, resulting in a steep learning curve for new users. Some reviewers have mentioned that certain functions are buried within multiple menus or tabs, making it time-consuming to find and access specific tools.

Poor Communication and Updates: Users have experienced issues with poor communication and updates from Brightpearl, resulting in functionality problems and the need for regular retraining. Timely information about system changes or bug fixes has been lacking, causing confusion and frustration among users who rely on accurate and up-to-date software functionality.

Lack of Integration Options: Several users have mentioned that the software has been overpromised in terms of integration with external systems, causing them to seek alternative, untested integrations. The limited integration options provided by Brightpearl fell short of expectations for some customers, requiring them to explore other solutions that may come with additional challenges and potential risks.

Users have provided several recommendations for Brightpearl based on their experiences with the platform. The most common recommendations are as follows:

  1. Gain a thorough understanding of how Brightpearl integrates and works with all channels: Users suggest taking the time to learn all the features of Brightpearl to maximize efficiency when using the platform. This includes understanding how it integrates with various channels, such as eBay and Amazon, to ensure smooth operations across multiple sales channels.

  2. Prepare and test data before implementing Brightpearl: It is advised to get data in order before implementing Brightpearl and to watch support videos on YouTube to better understand the product before going live. Users recommend properly preparing and testing external databases and consulting with Brightpearl about their capabilities, particularly when importing products.

  3. Take advantage of training resources and ask questions: Users recommend fully understanding the functions of Brightpearl before starting and ensuring that all products and transactions are added correctly. They also advise asking lots of questions about how Brightpearl integrates with current systems and meeting other companies currently using the system. In addition, involving all users in the training process can help avoid answering their questions later on.

Overall, users recommend investing time in learning and exploring Brightpearl's capabilities, preparing data thoroughly, and seeking support from both external resources and the company itself.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 29)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightpearl was installed as our WMS system last year as part of a wider migration from a bespoke platform to Shopify Plus. We wanted a system for stock accuracy across the business, with visibility for users on stock locations. It offers ease of use and a functional way for our buying team to upload PO's.
  • Stock accuracy and stock movement
  • Clear pricing for products across multiple currencies
  • Ability to enrich data
  • Search is a little clunky
  • Difficult to update or change information on single items when they're part of a larger group of products
  • Not being able to create Parent/child variants across sizes
As a manager of the Ecommerce team, it is vital that the data in Brightpearl is enriched and clear to allow the front end of the site to showcase the correct information for the end consumer. Brightpearl allows for this as well as being able to track product movement and sales.
Tracy Cooksey | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightpearl is primarily being used for its inventory capabilities. The sales invoicing and other accounting functions, along with the multiple currency facilities makes this software a comprehensive package - only limited by the lack of payroll processing.

Importing bank transactions via CSV files is very easy, making the reconciliation process relatively simple; the only issue we have experienced is that of making corrections or adjustments on sales invoices - being a double entry accounting system makes this more complicated than other accounting software that I have used.

Having said that though, Brightpearl have provided the best support service that I have experienced in a software provider, to help with any corrections.
  • Tracking Inventory, Sales Order and Invoice Creation
  • Importing bank transactions for accounting purposes is fairly easy
  • Tracking customer activity, and ability to store all communications with customers in the Time Line is very good
  • Sending monthly statements is very easy
  • The Timeline that tracks activity for the customer is a fantastic tool for allowing all users to see exactly what is happening with the Customer's account, and the notes facility with the event reminder for follow up is very useful for chasing up debtors or using as a reminder to action an outstanding issue for the customer; especially when the event list is used as your home page.
  • The double entry accounting for Sales Credits creates an entry on the Statement that Customers can find confusing.
  • Inability to order large volumes of stock on one purchase order is a big problem; the limitation on lines for an order is also very restrictive and causes the system to crash too often when close to being reached. The supplier invoice has to be split across multiple orders as a result.
  • Adjusting payment terms manually all the time is annoying, as the default is 30 days and required you to over write the full date when inputting purchases with different terms.
Brightpearl suits businesses with an inventory system where stock is not ordered well in advance (such as from overseas), and where purchase orders are greater in volume and not large in size.
It is very well priced compared to similiar products, and the new pricing structure offering unlimited users is a huge advantage over competitors.
The support team at Brightpearl is fantastic and are so accommodating and easy to understand.
December 29, 2016

Bright PEARL review

Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used as a business wide ERP. Worst ERP I have used. It is difficult to perform stock transfers. Cost of stock not valued properly. Orders on hand not showing correctly. Difficult to upload orders.
  • Communications.
  • Basic reports.
  • Stock accuracy.
  • Detailed reports.
  • No API link.
[Brightpearl is well suited for] Really small basic companies. Not suitable for multi channel, multi currency, growing companies. Not user friendly. Customer service are OK, though, when there is a problem. I wouldn't recommend for a large company over 5m. We are moving across to SAP as soon as possible.
Guy Wall | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Brightpearl as our ERP system to manage our multiple online brands. We find the system is comprehensive and efficient and there is usually minimal downtime. Our whole business is built on the back of Brightpearl as the supporting system and it copes with our demands with ease. While every system can be improved, Brightpearl seems to be continually striving for improvement and deals with any issues swiftly and efficiently.
  • Order processing
  • Customer contact management
  • Invoicing and cash control
  • Improvements to CRM functionality
  • Integration with Outlook
  • Better use of product catalogue
Brightpearl is fantastic to use particularly for online companies with multiple brands and sales channels as you can accurately keep track of the success of one particular brand. I find it to be a well designed and intelligent piece of software which very rarely lets itself down. We will continue to use Brightpearl for years to come.
Joel Graham | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
At Spikeball Inc., we use Brightpearl in our operations department, as a the go-between for our online sales systems and our shipping and fulfillment systems. It also serves as an inventory and accounting tool, and is used by roughly half of our employees. Brightpearl helps us to bridge the gap between several systems and keep track of numerous sales and SKUs in a simple and intuitive way.
  • Brightpearl allows you to create filters and set favorites, which enables us to view orders in different categories easily, and avoid having to scroll through numerous orders to find the ones we're looking for.
  • Brightpearl gives you the option of adding pertinent product details such as weight, dimensions, and cost to our company, which is helpful both for accounting and as an internal resource for customer support.
  • Brightpearl has great dashboards showing charts and graphs of sales sorted by channels, which is helpful for monitoring progress.
  • The processes for canceling and modifying orders can be a bit tedious, and it seems like the multi-click processes could be consolidated in a more user friendly way.
  • The order filtering feature is great, but I personally work with our international orders, and the fact that you can't create favorites for multiple countries is somewhat inconvenient.
  • Some of the connection features between Brightpearl and Amazon stores seem to have some glitches, as I've experienced while trying to link them up recently.
Brightpearl is very well suited for small-medium companies that are growing quickly and need a way to improve their operational systems and functionality to handle increasing volume of orders. Particularly if you use multiple SKUs, sales channels, and/or warehouses, the features offered by Brightpearl are excellently well suited to handle these types of needs. I don't believe Brightpearl would be very applicable for very small companies with a small number of SKUs, as many of the features offered would be unnecessary and underutilized.
James Ewens | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use BrightPearl as our main CRM/Accounting package. Our sales team uses it to sell and our warehouse team uses it to manage stock and pick/pack. We use Brightpearl to 110% of its abilities.
  • Amazing Warehouse and Dispatch process.
  • Easy to use and quick to master.
  • Simple Staff Management.
  • Accurate reporting and at-a-glance PnL.
  • Reporting! It is so much better than previous updates, but could still use a bit of extra help to manage teams.
  • Accuracy of accounting, especially VAT. It's usually accurate, but occasionally it gets things wrong.
  • Lack of Sales pipeline, although strictly speaking Brightpearl isn't designed to do this in the first place! It would just be a nice add on.
If you run a Multi-Channel business then BrightPearl is an absolute no brainer. It will save you hours and hours of time. It is well suited in any small to mid size business scenario.
James Murphy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Brightpearl in conjunction with our clients to bridge the gap between [their] eCommerce site and Brightpearl through the Brightpearl API. The client uses it to manage all stock and products between the different routes to market, eBay, Amazon, the web and in store. The Brightpearl system addresses the issue of ease of use and interconnectivity providing a more seamless experience for all employees.
  • Ease of Use
  • Simple Reporting
  • Extendability
  • Improvements to API
Brightpearl is great for multi-channel stock management and is a good fit as a stock and channel management system for business large and small. With a little help from myself, all channels are easily managed and reported on from within the Brightpearl platform. They are constantly improving the platform as well!
Colin Price | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized

Brightpearl is used for SOP and accounting with hooks into a SPREE web shop. We sell bundles of products to customers in the building control space. We have complex orders that require us to produce quotes and pro forma invoices for customers. Materials are mostly imported in other currencies and sold in the base currency.

We have 3 instances of Brightpearl (UK, New Zealand and Australia). We began using Brightpearl in the UK approximately 3 years ago and in New Zealand 4/2016 and Australia 7/2016. It has been a very painful experience implementing Brightpearl across the group and it has become clear that Brightpearl is not an internationalized product despite what was promised at the point we were choosing which system to use as an alternative to Sage.

  • SOP process is pretty easy
  • Adding and updating products is pretty easy
  • Producing quotations and converting those to POs is easy
  • Accounting - Foreign currency transaction handling for suppliers is ridiculous. I end up back in Excel and then make changes to journals. For an automated system this is frankly very very poor.
  • Accounting - no ability for live bank feeds or payroll make Brightpearl a very manual accounting system. Recommend that you reference Xero for best in class and aim for that as the benchmark rather than QuickBooks which is also poor generation if purchasing requirements does not consider the SoH and allocated and on order correctly. It also does not consider the low stock report when generating purchase quantity requests.
  • We are bombarded with requests to review Brightpearl support. I regularly respond but have no feedback, so, can't see the point.
  • Overall do not feel like a valued customer by the 'success team'.
I guess that Brightpearl is aimed at the high volume webshop etailers rather than more physical order based businesses, based in the UK. It's probably good here where there are few imports and all sales are made in the same territory and currency. I expect the integration with major shop platforms is good.
October 06, 2016

Highly Recommend

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightpearl is used across the company to control stock, manage orders, contact customers, invoice, raise POs and for accounts. It allows us to allocate stock to customers, know when to order more and be able to do this quickly and efficiently. It also helps with customer relations as we can now see when each customer has been contacted and what was said.
  • Stock management
  • Order processing
  • Building customer relations
  • Give an up to date view of the company accounts
  • Multi-currency bank accounts is currently an additional cost, I believe this should be included in the price.
  • It has a limited number of sales platforms which it can import automatically unlike many other stock systems. This is problematic and would be hugely beneficial to have platforms such as Not on the High Street and Etsy integrated.
  • The cost and initial set up fees for a small company are high.
well suited for any business which holds and controls stock.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightpearl is used by the whole business; it manages nearly everything that we do from purchasing and stock control, through to sales and margin reports, to accounting and credit control.

Initially we implemented Brightpearl after becoming dissatisfied with very clunky sales reporting in our previous system. I knew from using Pearl (as it was then) in a previous company that Brightpearl had a much more user-friendly pre-set reporting and also allowed full data export so it is simple to extract any other data you might need.
  • Excellent, comprehensive pre-set sales, margin and accounting reports with intelligent filters to allow user-customisation. The vast majority of what we need to know is in the default reports.
  • Information kept at the users' fingertips without visible boundaries of "modules". If you are writing a sale for a customer everything you need to know about sales history or payment record is there, without loading a different module.
  • Imports and exports with CSV files means updating product prices or generating an unusual custom sales report is a relatively simple task in a spreadsheet.
  • Sometimes the pace of updates can feel a little rushed.
  • New developments seem largely focussed on retail making the multi-channel system seem a little less multi-channel.
Brightpearl is perfect for retailers and wholesalers/distributors, especially if they use modern third-party shopping carts like Shopify. Support for integrating a bespoke website through API might be more limited.

It has some serious shortcomings for businesses that also manufacture product in-house. Brightpearl is open about this but it is a shame since many wholesale businesses manufacture parts to some extent.
Matthew Dreaper | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have used Brightpearl with 3 different clients, only 1 of which is a current user. At the time of selecting Brightpearl, it appeared to be the only fully-integrated system for small businesses - i.e. the only system where you could manage marketing, sales, inventory and accounting all on the same database. Over the last few years Brightpearl has deliberately focused the product on multi-channel retailers (i.e. internet and physical stores). The biggest single benefit is the integrated nature of the system.
  • 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
  • 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
  • They are focused on e-commerce businesses, and yet it's taken 5 or more years to enable running bank accounts in anything other than local currency
Brightpearl is only appropriate for e-commerce-type businesses, primarily retail, but could serve some wholesalers too.
You need to have some good technical support for implementation - ideally someone who is looking after your website and can also manage Brightpearl. Planning the structure of your product set is critical.
September 12, 2016

Brightpearl in the dark

Keith Denby | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used by client across their business - I am responsible for supporting integration with ecommerce platform(s).
  • Integrates across a variety of sales channels both cloud based and office based and in multiple currencies
  • Presents fine grained reporting across channels
  • Cloud based so very accessible from any connected location
  • Technical support is atrocious. Currently have an ongoing problem with order integration from a multi currency ecommerce platform. Now three weeks in and no solution. Emails to tech support not answered, frequently need to chase for a response, responses seek more data but when this is provided quickly there is no further response.
I would be reluctant to recommend anyone using it unless they have a well researched need that is not met by ANY other system
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightpearl is used as our office system, and keeps us all working to the same page!
  • Great support team
  • Good documentation
  • Useful updates
  • More update explanation
  • Better integration
  • Update the accounting pages more often
Brightpearl is extremely useful for any multi channel business in today's challenging environment. The many features of this system are valuable on an everyday basis, and fairly easy to train new users to administrate.
August 30, 2016

BrightPearl Yes or No?

Steven Mitchell | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it primarily for accounting and inventory management.
  • For me it works great as a cloud based accounting system as I work outside the office a lot. I can access all of our customer files for reference.
  • We also use Brightpearl to manage our inventory and use multiple warehouses for keeping track of inventory in off site locations.
  • It is nice to have all of our pricing information in a system that allows us to update pricing and everyone in our organization immediately has the latest information updated.
  • On the accounting side we have had some issues with multiple currency entries.
  • It can be a challenge to deal with a large product inventory and so far we have been unable to batch update our inventory to set minimums to zero for items we sell but do not stock.
Brightpearl is well suited when you want to be able to deal with your products and accounting from anywhere without having to manage your own servers and computer system.
July 22, 2016

Overall positive

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BP is used across the whole organisation. The advantage of BP is that it can give you a holistic view of the business faster and accurate, so long as it's implemented and managed correctly.
  • Sales and purchases - Multi channel setup and reporting. Great.
  • Customers - Supplier profiles are comprehensive and all transactions documented.
  • Inventory management is as good as any, quite happy
  • EPOS needs to be developed fast. Very keen to play with the new version out soon.
  • Custom filtering. Can be more comprehensive and more accommodating from an inventory perspective i.e. qty based reporting
  • Navigation could be more user friendly
Well suit for any business that have Sales, a customers base, purchases and suppliers. BP struggles from POS side , not user friendly and exchange transactions are too complicated.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used as POS for our retail stores and for back office inventory management.
  • SKU management
  • Inventory management
  • Multiple currencies
  • POS
  • Data export
  • CRM
It's well suited to a small, simple inventory scenario. We struggled with it when we expanded from Hong Kong to a new store in New York. Managing multiple inventory warehouses is tedious. There's not good media integration with products (attaching a photo to a sku that you can see everywhere--reports, etc).
Scott Dobson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cloud Distribution is a networking and security distribution business selling solutions to partners, resellers and service providers. We use Brightpearl to manage stock, multi-currency, invoicing and other accounting functions. Our sales force also uses Brightpearl to provide quotations to our clients. The real benefit we find from using the system is the simplicity of sending and tracking quotations and pipeline.
  • Quotations are very easy to stage, track and re-configure. We regularly re-use issued quotes and edit them, on the fly, which Brightpearl does really well.
  • The accounting function is bullet proof 'if' you spend time and effort ensuring your processes are logical. We spent many hours working on this element of the platform but now it's in place, it tends to provide near perfect P&L data.
  • The fact that BP is cloud based makes it simple to get your hands on important information any time, any place, any where.
  • Reporting is a well known area of Brightpearl which needs a lot of work. When creating or editing reports, the one thing you need to report on is, more often than not, missing which is very frustrating.
  • URL changes on each release make bookmarking a pain in the back side. I know there's a start URL but Brightpearl is the only platform I've ever worked with, and we work with many being a cloud distributor, which changes its underlying URL each time it releases new code. This needs to be fixed.
  • There seems to be an ongoing issue with PDF creating in the quotation engine whereby, for unknown reasons, PDFs end up being 0kb in size and are useless. We've raised this many times as I am sure others have also, but it keeps coming back.
  • Exporting and Importing products in particular is a time consuming and complex process made all the more difficult with restrictions on SKU counts and column naming issues. This needs more work for sure.
It suits our business and we certainly aren't the target audience. I guess the larger you are as a business the more ERP enterprise class software you need so SMB is a good place for Brightpearl to focus.
Georgie Lunan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use BP across our 2 current sales channels - ecommerce and wholesale
It handles our stock inventory and we use it for wholesale invoices and communications. We use it to keep track of ecommerce invoices and credit notes.
We have recently planned to start using it for ecommerce affiliate programmes.
We have it linked into our magento ecommerce platform for automated stock updates and order flows.
  • Great integration with Magento - makes our ecommerce order flow so much easier
  • Well set up for different areas of a business so that orders from different channels can be easily tracked
  • Cloud based, easily accessible from anywhere
  • Fairly difficult to use - training could be better and more relevant to each business needs. Generic training is good for understanding basics but to get the most of out BP we feel that specific business training would be far more beneficial.
  • Always feel there is more we can be getting out of the system but not sure what they are/how to get them
Well suited to multi platform businesses - ecommerce, wholesale and retail.
We have yet to use it from an accounting point of view
Being able to access it from anywhere in the world is great for demanding businesses
Where it is a fairly complicated platform it is challenging for a small business to truly make the most of the platform due to tight resources
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Brightpearl as our sales tool (quotes and invoices) and for inventory management. We are not yet using all the accounting features.
  • Quotes
  • Invoices
  • Inventory
  • Multiple Currencies
  • Navigation of product catalog
  • Info on products
  • Consolidated shipping overview
  • Good tools for sales
  • For inventory: Very good for retailers with simple products, gets complicated if you have products with multiple boxes
  • Integration with email marketing app is expensive (more than monthly fee of the email management software)
  • Not good if you buy products in different currencies
Chris Metropulos | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BrightPearl is a key component for entering new client orders delivered from stock or new client special orders. We use features such as the "smartforms" as a way to communicate with or register clients, and we use it as a data analysis tool for marketing campaigns or tracking financial goals.

Each employee has been provided with a login and each department uses it in different ways:
  • Our sales team is responsible for entering new orders and through tagging themselves they are able to follow up on finished projects or open orders.
  • Our marketing team worked to import our 10,000+ client database from our former system initially and tagging each client according to how we categorize them (homeowner, contractor, trade, or reseller). Based on what marketing campaign is the focus for the current quarter or time period, our team uses the filters for say an area and profession, and tags those members with the appropriate campaign title. This helps us generate an accurate target list for mailings.
  • Our operations team in our warehouse is responsible for fulfilling orders, entering shipping information, and managing inventory levels.
  • Our product management team is responsible for assisting the marketing team in collecting and analyzing campaign data also using sales data to indicate which products are most desirable. This team is also responsible for managing existing SKUs, importing new SKUs, and ensuring all technological functions in the system are functional. Based upon sales data, the team can more confidently use the data to send new purchase orders to Vendors. All analytics are also used to appropriately guide the web content. Lastly, the team uses special filters to properly manage Architectural client bid projects.
The overall business problems this platform solves is organizing Big Data, more intuitively/quickly fulfilling orders made via e-commerce or by contacting our team, and efficiently managing our warehouse products all done in one system.
  • Brightpearl is organized in an easy to understand manner. This is a strength because you can essentially learn your way through best practices in the early stages of your transition.
  • Brightpearls tagging, filtering, and reporting systems do quite a great job if used appropriately. These features can be used appropriately by not over complicating and adding too many filters. This is a strength because it is easy to generate client target lists in a variety of manners and the corresponding popular products in those areas for very informed sales and marketing strategies to be born.
  • Brightpearl has the ability to function with other necessary platforms. This is a strength because there are several platforms used throughout business and the better they react with each other or transfer information the better for your business.
  • Brightpearl has an exceptional support team. From start to finish the team is willing to understand your business and roadblocks offering quick and reliable solutions.
  • More reliability in coding features, primarily in the "smartforms" sections. The smartforms code is embedded in the static block of that particular page however frequently during BP code/software updates the smartforms tend to disappear. It is just an extra step to contact BP to get the new code update.
  • When creating a sales order, there are several steps that are manual such as: updating order status (should be automatic when payment is made etc), invoicing is manual which for sales reports is very important to do, and some orders require making custom order fields. While all these steps are manageable if someone forgets to do one of these it can either hold up an order or mess with reports. You can set pop-up alerts to help but you can only make so many of those when it becomes too much.
  • There are those infrequent moments when BP "breaks" connection with another app. Our BP connects with our Magento Web Platform and syncs our products. The problem arose when the two did not sync and we needed to break the connection, remake the connection, and re-sync.

It has to be said that Brightpearl is fairly versatile. I say this because our company setup and what we wanted to do with the system was asking a lot. Through experience and support from Brightpearl we where actually pleased to find solutions to a lot of our problems. I believe BP is best suited for an e-commerce which has a single storefront and a company which sells products such as apparel and footwear.

In a construction materials company we made it work because we saw enough potential in Brightpearl’s future and were certain we could adapt and have.

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightpearl is used across the whole of the company. We use it to record orders, track inventory, accounting, dispatch, emailing customers and suppliers from their accounts. We are a UK based company, though our colleague based in the US also uses Brightpearl to take orders, dispatch, and track over in the USA. We also track sales charts, audit trails, locations - everything is done via Brightpearl.
About 5 years ago, our company used paper to record all of the above, the customer services manager would remember all the orders that were placed and could allocate inventory when it came in to the correct orders. However, as the business grew, we needed a more reliable system, so we chose to go with Brightpearl. We are now sending hundreds of orders a day, so it's a very helpful asset to have.

  • Very good at keeping you in the loop with orders, backorders, etc. When you have a large amount of orders, often orders can slip your mind, but with Brightpearl you can set reminders, which are flagged up when you need to remember something. Very helpful.
  • If you enter an ISBN or product code, then Brightpearl will immediately highlight if there is another product on the system with that same ISBN. It is very helpful, and has saved us a lot of time in the past.
  • Auto ordering is a delight. I used to spend around 3 hours a day having to manually create Purchase Orders, but with thanks to batch adding POs, it saves a whole of time.
  • We use Brightpearl to send emails out, and the quick note options are wonderful time savers. You can save notes and emails with just a click of a button, very useful for when you need to read up on a customer order or on their account.
  • Though you can set reminders, the flagging up of them is very small, and can be very easily missed.
  • Brightpearl does upgrade your account at very random times. You could have just finished something and when you click 'Save', it then tells you that it has upgraded your account, therefore you lose everything you had just done.
  • Sometimes when you have done a normal function, Brightpearl will bring up an error message 'Whoops!' No idea why, it just does it. When you ask another colleague to try it, it will work for them. It seems to have the occasion bug here and there.
  • It's not overly helpful when we come to sending out statements as the statements do not have any indication of what the order had on it, so the customer tends to always need to contact us to remind themselves of what they have ordered - it would be helpful if the customer knew then and there what they had ordered.
At the moment, Brightpearl is being used by our colleague in the US but it's not that helpful for the customers as Brightpearl is not currently multi-currency, so the customers are getting confused by the USD and the GBP difference.
Brightpearl is well suited to our company though on the whole, it has the capability to be used across all of our departments...but it means that if it goes down, none of us can really do anything!
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BrightPearl is basically the back office for a retail client. It's used to keep track of everything- product catalog, purchase orders & payments, sales orders and invoices, customer loyalty. They have multiple sales channels, so BrightPearl is used as the central repository to keep track of inventory and sales across brick-and-mortar and online presences.
  • Batch processing - import and export of product, order and customer data is intuitive and flexible. Being able to specify a 'data map' for exactly the items I need to update in a CSV file means I don't have to touch every attribute value when I only need to adjust one or two.
  • Provides a RESTFUL API, which allows script-based automation of common queries and tasks in whatever language you need.
  • Inventory management - from purchase order through fulfillment, it's easy to see what you've got, how much is allocated and how much is on order.
  • Tax calculations. BrightPearl supports both European-style VAT and US location-based systems, but it seems like the US tax calculation can be brittle
  • Managing inventory and sales of by-weight or by-volume items.
  • User interface is a little busy and not consistent. There are often too many menus - I counted 4 separate menus on the 'Settings' page alone. Sometimes the user-interface elements seem non-standard (and therefore non-intuitive): a left-side 'expanding' menu (see: Settings) that visually doesn't transition well and makes it hard to use.
Since the by-weight/ by-volume inventory is lacking, not a good match for a grocery. Product variants seem well-handled, and multiple-channel management is done well, so a clothing retailer seems a perfect match - same item in different colors and sizes, sold via eBay, online store and brick-and-mortar store (using the POS).
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightpearl is used across the whole organisation of one of the company's that I am responsible for, which is a telecommunications equipment distributor. It is a very user friendly system and allows the company to seamlessly convert a sales quote to sales order to sales invoice.
  • It is an extremely user friendly system that took very little time to adapt to
  • Conversion of sales quotes to orders to sales invoices with a few clicks
  • Recording payments to suppliers and from customers is very simple
  • Reversing journals
  • Multi currency bank accounts and postings
  • An additional field on products for serial numbers
As mentioned before the fact that there is no field for serial numbers on our products means that we need to keep an additional manual report as part of our stock reconciliation process.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightpearl is our central database and is used by everyone in the company. All contacts, sales and purchases are recorded and our inventory is matched up accordingly. Before brightpearl we struggled with product management because our sales and purchases weren't able to link directly to the warehouse. This has now been solved and everything runs far more efficiently.
  • Inventory Management - Automatic adjustments based on sales and purchases.
  • Invoice Generating - Emailing and printing pre-formatted invoices.
  • Purchase Orders - Once an invoice has been created, it can be un-invoiced, however a purchase order can't be un-purchased.
  • Early Settlement Discounts - There is no way of setting up an early settlement discount during the invoice process so that it is automatically applied if the payment is received in time.
  • Contacts - It's very frustrating that the contacts have orders allocated to them, rather than the customer account. I find this set up quite frustrating if I'm looking for an order.
It's very well suited to importers and exporters, or anyone requiring stock management. I'm not sure how good it would be for the service industry though.
Nick Oliver | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Brightpearl across most areas of our business. It is the Point of Sale system for our shops, our accounting system, our stock control system for shops and e-commerce and our customer management and service platform. Its primary value is in managing stock across our shops and our web sites - so that both channels can share access to the same inventory. We will be adding Amazon and Ebay channels in the future and it integrates with them. We already integrate it with Magento which we use as our web platform and with MailChimp which we use to send customer emails. All financial transactions are recorded in Brightpearl and it provides the information we need to manage cash flow. All customer communication is recorded in Brightpearl.
  • Stock control - managing inventory across multiple channels so that items are not sold more than once.
  • Sales Order flow - dealing with orders from multiple channels. Point of Sale for shop sales and despatch/customer notification process for web orders.
  • Purchase Order Flow - adding purchase orders for future season stock orders. Booking that stock in and seeing at a glance what deliveries are outstanding.
  • We'd love to be able to create configurable products in Magento straight out of Brightpearl. For example, products that have multiple colour or size options have to be created manually in Magento and then linked to the individual items/skus sent form Brightpearl to Magento.
  • Saving report options. Reports we run regularly have to be configured each time we run them e.g. options selected for the report. Not a major thing but it would save time if those options could be saved.
  • Point of Sale - it would be good if we could continue to use the POS part of Brightpearl if our internet connection goes down. Fortunately this does not happen too often.
Brightperal is well suited to multi channel retail e.g. web, shops, Ebay Amazon etc. It is well suited to fashion - copes well with brands, colour and size options for product. It is well suited to businesses without high levels of IT expertise. Users without much computer experience can pick it up.
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