Item: Brightpearl by Sage
Rating: 6
Author: Matthew Dreaper

Overall Satisfaction with Brightpearl

Implementation Rating

PLAN. Spend maximum possible time planning and thinking about how it will deal with the complex/weird parts of your business. If you plan well then the system can serve you very well.

Support Rating

Generally been competent and reasonably responsive.
Not so convinced that they listen to user suggestions on product improvements.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

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
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

Return on Investment

It is a critical business system - without Brightpearl, or an equivalent, you can't run an e-commerce retailer
Brightpearl has become expensive compared to some software targeted at small businesses but I don't think the cost is prohibitive unless you were selling under £100k per year

Alternatives Considered

Xero

I think that Xero plus appropriate add-ons may now be at a stage where it would beat Brightpearl. Certainly Xero's accounting is way better. I have not used comparable add-ons to Xero.

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Comments

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A good solution for e-commerce retailers