Bright Pearl - Happy Customers

[a1anm]

We are thinking of streamlining our systems and have been looking at Bright Pearl.

This would allow us to do everything in one system ie. inventory, orders, accounts etc.

I had a look at their demo and was quite impressed however I noticed some negative feedback on this forum.

I just wondered if anyone is using it who is satisfied with the service?

I don't want to go through the integration process only to realise it's no good.

 

[TotallySport]

the bits on the forum I have read, most seem happy with the product, but support lets it down.

I have never used them, but might be an idea to ring their support line a few times.

 

[Jack@GillespieBS]

Hi a1anm

I have lots of clients who use Brightpearl and are extremely happy with it.

As I said in a different thread, research is key so speak to as many people as you can about it and make sure you have all the information.

Feel free to contact us with any questions as we support many Brightpearl clients and I can help you get started with a free 30 day trial which I can help support you with.

Jack Newcombe
Gillespie BS

 

[a1anm]

Thanks!

I have playing around with it a bit and it looks like what we are looking for. I am also getting a demo from Bright Pearl tomorrow.

My main concern is that I think you need to pay for integration (or pay before you get a full integration with Magento) so I'm worried that won't be able to fully test it before 'signing up'.

 

[TotallySport]

pay by credit card, at least it will offer some protection

 

[IanDade]

My main concern is that I think you need to pay for integration (or pay before you get a full integration with Magento) so I'm worried that won't be able to fully test it before 'signing up'.

Try our partners, StoreFeeder. No integration fees or upfront payments. Ask them for a 15 day free trial and they will happily oblige. This gives you a couple of weeks to set up and see how things go before you pay anything

 

[BigTimeTrader]

If u are processing orders of 150 volume or less per day with montly gmv of £20k and u sell on amz and ebay then yes it will be ok

If higher and / or, u want to grow to bigger then chose a more expensive platform such as channel advisor or esellerpro.

Aim big and think big. Do not start/ learn on one platform only to outgrow it and thus migrate to a new platform. Start on the big end game platform to begin with.

 

[Jack@GillespieBS]

a1anm

Like you said the worst thing would be is if you fork out a lot for the package and the Magento integration, for it not to work!

Therefore with the integration side of things make sure there is at least some kind of accountability and after-support. The last thing you want is to pay extra for ultimately someone else's mistake.

Now you don't have to have the implementation done by Brightpearl itself as there are others out there who can also do that (ourselves included). By going independent you would be able to include a better after support package which might be more supportive than the software provider itself.

Get a feel for the system in the trial and see what you think. As the Magento integration is going to be key push them on that aspect also.

Jack

 

[smo]

Brightpearl cant handle customisation fields so its fine if you sell a blue mug or a pencil but when you get to a blue mug with a personal message or a pencil with a childs name it cant handle it at all.

 

[LinkBright Media]

Support costs a fortune (high hourly charges).. unfortunately they're not very up front about this at all and I found out too late. They seem happy to provide the initial few hours to help with getting set up and after that you have to pay for support up front.

 

[a8star]

In my frustration I went looking for real people using magento and brightpearl. Not one person has had a good experience.

I am still struggling to get them to act on my remaining issues and I went live on their system middle of June.

They have not even completed training on accounting.

There are some interesting comments from real users at the end of this PR campaign.
merchantmaverick dot com/pos-software-reviews/brightpearl-review/comment-page-1/

I think my next step will be to contact one of the board of directors who fund the company.

 

[Jack@GillespieBS]

That sounds extremely frustrating a8star!

In the mean time if you need any help from accountants who use Brightpearl we are more than happy to help. We have trained numerous businesses on how to use the accounting function in Brightpearl.

We are also a firm of chartered accountants who are official Brightpearl accounting partners.

Feel free to give us a call or an email

Jack Newcombe
GillespieBS
jack at gillespiebs.co.uk
0330 330 1078

 

[krupuk]

Brightpearl has some major problems. Many people, myself included, signed up to Brightpearl based on promises that developing a multi-currency system was a high priority. It has been a feature requested by users for 4 and a quarter years and nothing has been done. Now its been put on the backburner indefinitely. Your Euro and other foreign currency transactions are deposited, together with your local currency transactions, into one account. All currencies mixed up in a huge jumble within one account which you're expected to waste your valuable time unraveling.

Brightpearl also boasts the ability to list directly from within Brightpearl on eBay, but, unless you only sell products which are under 2kg and can ship Royal Mail, this feature is effectively disabled because you can't access eBay's shipping tables, so you can't set shipping surcharges for UK regions, or set shipping costs for overseas (because you'd have to set one rate for all of the EU, with the exception of France, Germany and Ireland, one rate for the rest of Europe, etc. So you get a customer buys from Cyprus and you're expected to use the same rate as you would for Belgium even though the cost to Cyrpus is about 4 or 5 times higher than it to Belgium. A company that spends time developing a feature like this but then effectively disables it doesn't inspire much confidence.

 

[oceanboy]

Hello,

We are working with them, nice and good system.

However support sucks. I have opened few tickets as errors keep popping out, and only think you can expect is wait for couple of week.

I wanted to sign up with tel support and despite only one person will be calling them for support, they do have to charge you per person from total users, cant sign up for single user.

The other problem we have is bulk actions. When invoicing orders in bulk, anything over 15-20 orders will give you blank page. You will have to log in back and start over again.

Hope they will improve on customer service soon, otherwise pretty good system

 

[TPH1]

I can't really understand why people even consider using a system outside of Linnworks if looking for an "all in one".

 

[oceanboy]

For us different price for different platforms ability with cost effectiveness to be honest.

 

[antropy]

I'm looking at developing an extension to integrate Brightpearl with OpenCart and from what I've seen of their API so far, it's pretty good.

 

[AlexPallex]

You guys need to take a look at understandinge.com - set your own system up for nothing other than your time and end up with something more powerful than all these subscription services.

 

[oceanboy]

Sounds good AlexPallex, I will check it and give you a feedback asap.

I was thinking about this to be honest

 

[jeff_fusian]

Brightpearl provide us ease in our overall business transaction. It may not be perfect but I believe they are working every single opportunity that they can to improve the platform and features. Systems may have pros and cons and it depends on the user on how they will maximize the usage. Through open forums and other related activities we can inform the provider on our opinion and pin point some weaknesses to make them aware and react.

 

[ots366]

We run two businesses on Brightpearl:

If you are familiar with Sage & Nominal Codes etc, The accounts side of Brightpearl is very functional & pretty self explanatory, The stock management and integration with channels works well for us too. (ebay, amazon, website, plus offline sales)

The only real issue I have with Brightpearl, is the lack of customisable sales reporting at the moment, although I am assured this is due in a future release.. At the minute we still have to use various excel spreadsheets.

 

[Kalsan]

Have you seen Brightpearl company Finances? They have been given a really bad credit score.

 

[JamieM]

I can't really understand why people even consider using a system outside of Linnworks if looking for an "all in one".

For me it's because Linnworks doesn't run on Mac OS X.

 

[Linn Systems]

Hi JamieM,

For me it's because Linnworks doesn't run on Mac OS X.

That is currently correct, however this is soon to be a thing of the past....

We have our web-based version of Linnworks in development at the moment and is due for release by the end of the year. This will mean that you will have all of the functionality currently available in Linnworks but accessible though any browser including safari and also will be optimised for tablet use too.

For a taster of the functionality available please go to www.linnworks.net and then log to your Linnworks account to see the already available dashboards section. On release we will be rolling out the full version that will include the full order management modules allowing for full functionality of the system.

Should you have any further questions regarding Linnworks, please get in touch.

Kind Regards

Richard Maxted
Business Development Executive
LinnSystems LTD

 

[ots366]

That is the main reason we chose to implement Brightpearl over Linnworks, we didn't want to have to install software, plus it restricts you from working remotely (easily)

 

[JamieM]

Hi JamieM,

That is currently correct, however this is soon to be a thing of the past....

We have our web-based version of Linnworks in development at the moment and is due for release by the end of the year. This will mean that you will have all of the functionality currently available in Linnworks but accessible though any browser including safari and also will be optimised for tablet use too.

For a taster of the functionality available please go to www.linnworks.net and then log to your Linnworks account to see the already available dashboards section. On release we will be rolling out the full version that will include the full order management modules allowing for full functionality of the system.

Should you have any further questions regarding Linnworks, please get in touch.

Kind Regards

Richard Maxted
Business Development Executive
LinnSystems LTD

That's interesting Richard, thanks for posting. Any ideas on pricing as yet?

 

[Linn Systems]

Hi JamieM,

That's interesting Richard, thanks for posting. Any ideas on pricing as yet?

Our pricing will remain as it is currently, please follow this link to view these prices.

Kind Regards,

Richard Maxted
Business Development Executive
LinnSystems LTD

 

[pre0rm]

I thought I'd give my insight into Brightpearl. We've been a client of theirs for just over a year. I definitely wouldn't recommend it. I think the system works okay if you're a small business and not looking to expand or sell overseas. The integrations with Ebay and Amazon etc work to the most basic of levels. There's a lot of features which they haven't managed to get working properly.
They are releasing updates every fortnight but these are mainly fixing bugs and nothing that's really improving the overall experience.
If you want a good idea of the issues that you might face, search google for "brightpearl feedback forum". You'll find a list of suggestions from existing users. Note the dates that some of the most popular ones are suggested and it'll give you an idea of how slow their development is. You can also see how little input Brightpearl have with the forum. They don't really listen to their customers.

 

[krupuk]

Brightpearl has potential but I think users selling overseas are praying that the $10 million investment they received will go into programming. Even if you're not selling overseas there are lots of bugs (inept programming?) which cost you a lot of time to sort out. That some of these bugs take a long time to fix (or not fix) really makes you lose confidence. I'm really surprised that someone running 2 business (top of page) doesn't have any issues. Maybe they're not looking closely enough at what Brightpearl is doing. We're seeing orders import with wrong VAT codes which means every order has to be checked manually, lots of little problems that weren't covered in training that require little workarounds, Paypal payments in foreign currencies coming in without being converted using the entered exchange rate, etc, etc, etc.

 

[Davjan]

ChannelGrabber (there are many options out there) may be an alternative but IME none work as seamlessly as we would like or the sales team lead you to believe.

 

[ots366]

Brightpearl has potential but I think users selling overseas are praying that the $10 million investment they received will go into programming. Even if you're not selling overseas there are lots of bugs (inept programming?) which cost you a lot of time to sort out. That some of these bugs take a long time to fix (or not fix) really makes you lose confidence. I'm really surprised that someone running 2 business (top of page) doesn't have any issues. Maybe they're not looking closely enough at what Brightpearl is doing. We're seeing orders import with wrong VAT codes which means every order has to be checked manually, lots of little problems that weren't covered in training that require little workarounds, Paypal payments in foreign currencies coming in without being converted using the entered exchange rate, etc, etc, etc.

I assume you mean me, I'm not saying there aren't problems,and dealing with bugs via the Brightpearl help desk can be somewhat frustrating when they tell you they already know and havent fixed it yet, but that's true of most systems I guess.

We sell to most of the world and import from the far east so we certainly stretch its capabilities. We certainly couldn't do what we do now with Sage for example.

We don't take Paypal in foreign currency so can't comment on that one!

 

[BrandUK]

I have been dealing with brightpearl on and off for a while now. I have paid a lot of money to them and nothing has come to fruit. I feel the idea and system has the potential to be great however I have truly let down. This is only my personal experience and I am sure there are many businesses out there that are using and will use the system with great outcomes.

1 - the sales person mis-sold the system capability to us and did not understand our requirements.
2 - the training has been so-so, You will learn more by reading the setup guide and doing it yourself.
3 - the system failed with the amount of products we uploaded. They have apparently fixed this.
4 - The system would load very slow and they would say it is out internet speed.

I am not sure what we are going to do now. I have to take a long term decision and maybe cut my loses. I still believe Brightpearl could work for us and I want to be taking major steps forward and not backwards!

Of course reading there PR online they seem to be making some headway in the market plus gaining new funding. However I am a bit cautious after reading a post on here saying their finances are not showing as too good. I have just done a search with the credit checking company we use and it states "Above Average Risk - Proceed With Caution". Their Credit rating was excellent (91) then it went down to (15) now it has gone up to (45).

 

[TomaszP]

I have been using Brightpearl over 2 years. I used Linnworks and Sage but couldn't get what I wanted - "all in one" solution" with good stock management and multi-channel integration. So far I have not had any problems with the support, I always get help and solution for my problems. Integrations with Ebay, Amazon and Magento work great, no more overselling! Easy to use and a very intuitive UI.

 

[JodieVeeqo]

It's one of the most popular inventory management systems, so I reckon it's best to just give it as long as you've looked into it thoroughly and think it'll work. You could also try LinnWorks, StitchLabs, Channel Grabber or Veeqo (please note I do actually work for Veeqo!) as those are all popular too. Just make sure the software supports whatever technology you're currently using (in terms of channels, operating systems, laptops/tablets), can handle the amount of customers/orders, and is within your allocated budget.

 

[gadgetbay.net]

we've been using mintsoft for a year now, really easy to use & cloud based.

pretty good features for processing large volumes of orders, we do about 300 ebay, 50 amazon & some small website sales. although does not have the accounting features that brightpearl does, only for fulfilment warehouses.

dedicated support & setup which is great - get answers in 2-3 minutes

 

[j1mcdonn]

We are thinking of streamlining our systems and have been looking at Bright Pearl.

This would allow us to do everything in one system ie. inventory, orders, accounts etc.

I had a look at their demo and was quite impressed however I noticed some negative feedback on this forum.

I just wondered if anyone is using it who is satisfied with the service?

I don't want to go through the integration process only to realise it's no good.

I find Pearl really easy to use, the support can be a little slow but they do get there.

 

[timelliott]

We've been using Brightpearl for coming up to a year now. It's very good for what we use it for, in general. There are a few problems still. Multi-currency support is not great. Platform speed can sometimes be an issue. There are some annoying niggles.

I find the support pretty good now, better than it was 6 months ago.

We tried nearly every multi-channel software on the market before picking Brightpearl and I'm still happy that we made the right choice.