The Bright Pearl Review
April 18, 2016

The Bright Pearl Review

Chris Metropulos | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Brightpearl

First and foremost, it is hugely important to have a database with complete product information completed in advance to begin about importing products in Brightpearl. The huge downside to this is that we have thousands and thousands of SKUs however Brightpearl can only import 500 at a time and they have their technological/security reasons. This was a bit difficult due to us having to import in phases. The other setup was actually quite manageable and again support was key. Once everything was set up technically our team really came through in training and testing to really optimize the system to suit our needs.
Brightpearl support is friendly, quick, and makes you feel as if your problem is important to them as well. If Brightpearl made some of the sales features standard (issues listed in previous question) this would make the support teams' work much simpler. I am hoping support can submit feedback so in the next software update they could potentially be implemented. It is also very positive to know that the support team is conscious that you're running a business and that this software is central to fulfilling orders. They correct things without disrupting you or any one else's system.
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.
  • Lead conversions are done more quickly and reliably. Conversions are aided with filtering features for ease of followup on your specific orders.
  • Efficiency is increased since system is pretty intuitive.
  • Plans to increase customer service with implementation of ticket system for returns, credits, or product feedback.
  • Easily able to track sales trends to more reliably strategize new product launches or marketing initiatives.
Overall, Brightpearl is the better system if you have a multi-store front e-commerce and are selling virtually any product. It is more adaptable and gave the best impression during trials. Even though it wasn't presented as the most economical, it is still not out of the budget. We are pleased with our decision for the time being and are especially confident that Brightpearl will continue to improve based on client feedback.

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.

Using Brightpearl

12 - Stock Order Processing, Special Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing, Sales Reports, Web Form Implementation, Channel Management, and Marketing Campaign Management.
3 - Adding functionalities not standard but possible with Brightpearl relating to order processing or fulfillment. Technical support also includes managing syncing and any other general error Brightpearl shows that is not intact.
  • By type: Sample or Product
  • By Collection: Multi-stores
  • By Availability: Stock, Special Order, Made-to-Order
  • Creating Geographical Filters to organize client target lists when needed
  • Creating automated alerts to ensure no steps are missed
  • Creating multiple order statuses to help order fulfillment
  • Adding more products and storefronts
  • Implementing ticket system
  • Concentrating reports to suit needs
Brightpearl has proved to work out for our company and we have no need or intention to let it go. Rather we intend to build on what we've accomplished and it will no doubt help us scale our business and meet our ambitions.