Brightpearl - I have no idea how to run a business...

[Mixture]

I have been having a few calls from Brightpearl, and after initially dismissing them due to their pushy sales tactics, I have been contacted again by them as they want to help me.

I have been using linnworks since day one, and have found it to be fantastic and I love the system.

Brightpearl have been telling me how Linnworks is holding me back and preventing the growth of my business being at its full potential - in 2 years using linnworks we have gone from £0 to £2 million turnover in less than 2 years but it is apparently holding me back.

Apparently, many many linnworks customers are moving to Brightpearl which I cannot find evidence of.

According to Brightpearl it would allow me to grow more and become more profitable by its in depth profit calculations etc.
I have been told it will take into account everything, including eBay and Amazon fees, charges and everything under the sun to give me a real insight into how each product is performing in real figures.
Having investigated Brightpearl I can't see any information on this as to whether it is true or not, but I am happy to continue with the sales pitch to see where it leads.

However, having watched the many Brightpearl video tutorials online, it does appear to be a rather strange and very clunky system. Just the way you run a stock take in the system seems to be the most backwards way of working I have ever seen, and the order management/processing side of the system seems to be very odd indeed. Compared to Linnworks it is a totally strange system and way of working.
As for the pricing structure of Brightpearl seems very difficult to understand, and the comments that "we can work something out on the pricing" seems rather strange - why have a pricing structure if you do not have to keep to it.

From my perspective, Linnworks is the better system, for both the continued growth of the business.
Brightpearl tell me that Linnworks will not be able to cope as the business grows further, but I believe that Linnworks will cope much better than Brightpearl would as the business grows.

I have since been looking at Tradebox integration with Linnworks, to allow me to get the Linnworks data into Sage to allow us to make better analysis of the business, where our profits lie and where we are going wrong - Am I right in thinking this?

The main points where Brightpearl are telling me that they are better than Linnworks is the analysis of profits per item, and costs etc. I feel that Tradebox/Sage working with Linnworks would be a better solution and I would like to know your thoughts on this.
Does anyone use Tradebox with Linnworks and what are your thoughts on this?

 

[finleydesign]

Do a search for Brightpearl on these forums, makes for interesting reading

 

[Tradebox]

Hi

Thought I would jump on the thread and give you some info on Tradebox/Sage integration with Linnworks. You can read independent Tradebox reviews on the eBay Solutions Directory; http://cgi6.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SolutionsDirectory&subgroup=7&page=details&solutionId=1054.

Tradebox takes a feed from Linnworks which contains all sales, in all currencies, from all markets/websites that Linnworks integrates with. Connections are created in Tradebox to read the feed. Connections can only handle a single currency, so if you have multiple currencies in your feed then you would need to create a connection for each currency. The feed also contains all of the marketplace/website names which allows you to create a connection for each market. This is optional but is useful for splitting sales in Sage for reporting/analysis purposes. You can find out more about the functionality of the Tradebox integration with Linnworks at, http://www.tradebox.uk.com/linnworks.html. There is also a video walkthrough of setting up the connection at

.

As an accounts package, Sage will give you profitability for your business. If you choose to hold stock in Sage and record the cost of the products you buy then you can also generate product profitability reports in Sage for the products you sell which will show you the margins you are making. Also, you can set up Sage and Tradebox to identify the marketplace/website the sales are happening on so you can run a departmental profit and loss in Sage which will give you analysis of how each marketplace/website is performing.

The best way to think of Tradebox is as an automated bookkeeper that does the data entry in Sage so you don't have to. This allows you to use Sage for financials and/or for order management and stock control.

Hope this is of help.


Regards


Stephen

 

[Linn Systems]

Good morning Mixture, and other respondents,

I am saddened to hear that a company such as BrightPearl have been making comments to you such as this. We have always regarded them as a respected competitor, with a similarly strong approach to ethics and competition. We would welcome an official response from a representative on this matter, which has caused such a vigorous discussion.

In response to the comments made here, quoted in bold below, however, we would like to make this statement:

Brightpearl have been telling me how Linnworks is holding me back and preventing the growth of my business being at its full potential - in 2 years using linnworks we have gone from £0 to £2 million turnover in less than 2 years but it is apparently holding me back.

Firstly, we are happy to see that Linnworks has helped this particular forum member achieve such an impressive amount of growth. This is what we designed the software to do, and going from nothing to £2,000,000 in 2 years is not to be sniffed at.

Regarding the comments about scalability and growth, we would argue that this is not proven. With larger clients including DFS, one of the biggest furniture retailers in the UK, and Kidderminster Shoes, one of the country’s largest shoe retailers and suppliers, we would argue Linnworks can handle the demands of larger businesses quite happily. Furthermore, Boho Shoes, a well-known US apparel and clothing specialist in the US, currently handle over 16,000 orders a day. These companies, and many others that have grown with Linnworks as the original poster did, demonstrate the fallacy of these claims.

Would any of these customers be using Linnworks if they weren’t confident it could cope? I think the answer is self-evident.

Apparently, many many linnworks customers are moving to Brightpearl which I cannot find evidence of.

At this time, we are unaware of this being the case. We contact each and every seller who asks to cancel their subscription for Linnworks, to ensure that we are giving them the best service, or to address any issues they would like to raise. While we have been sad to note that a number of smaller businesses have chosen to withdraw from online sales, or shutdown altogether as their performance has not met expectations in the crowded eCommerce market, we have not noted a trend of moving to BrightPearl.

The main points where Brightpearl are telling me that they are better than Linnworks is the analysis of profits per item, and costs etc.

Our position when asked to compare our system to that of others remains as it always has:

There are no good or bad approaches to helping online sellers, simply those that are right for you. With an increasing number of companies offering software and services tailored to areas both narrow and broad, you can find the right software for you.

We simply believe that the approach we take is the best one for the people that use Linnworks. And for the people that continue to find and use Linnworks, year on year. No company or software package can offer every feature without compromising on quality, so you should always test several products, and evaluate whether they can fulfil the requirements you and your business have. Don’t let someone else tell you how to run your business, no one knows it as well as you.

As a company that is very aware of our community, and endeavours to use the needs of our customer base to shape our priorities, I’d like to point everyone to our UserVoice page. This is a forum for customers to nominate, vote for and discuss the features they would most like to see in Linnworks. As you can see, the Top 5 requested features don’t include any Accounting requests, so we would dispute that this is a point of contention for Linnworks users.

In conclusion, we would love to discuss this further with BrightPearl’s representatives in an open forum. There is no benefit to having a discussion such as this away from the very people it affects.

Best,
Artem Verovenko
Head of Business Development
Linn Systems

 

[antropy]

Spot on replies from both Linnworks and Tradebox. Many of our clients use both and are more than happy and some have been fortunate enough to enjoy growth on a par with the OP.

Some clients have come to us (we're OpenCart providers) from Brightpearl but I'm not aware of any going the other way.

 

[Mixture]

Thanks all for your responses and as far as I am concerned I am going to be staying with Linnworks, but am going to let Brightpearl show me the system out of interest.
I think that from what Tradebox has said, the better solution is Linnworks coupled with Tradebox to automate our manual accounting processes, rather than migrating to a system that I believe is no where near as good as Linnworks, and after looking at Brightpearl's many online videos it just seems such a strange way of working that I don't think I could ever get used to using it.

I also do not like the pushy sales technique they use.

 

[Brightpearl_product]

I am very glad to hear that you are going to continue to look into Brightpearl. We are aware that each merchant has different needs and the only way to make a good decision is to look carefully at the various options and decide what will be best for your business. In this I am 100% aligned with Artem from Linn Systems.

I also support the conclusion that you have reached, in deciding to weigh Brightpearl against Linnworks combined with Sage through Tradebox. This is a reasonable like-for-like comparison, as Brightpearl is itself an integrated system, combining CRM, Products, Order processing & Accounting. In Brightpearl all orders and movements of stock are reflected directly into the accounting ledgers, and the integrated whole is available through the same interface. This is designed to directly address the requirement you describe, namely "to make better analysis of the business, where our profits lie and where we are going wrong". It is not the only way to do so, but we believe it is one of the areas where Brightpearl shines.

With respect to the sales techniques, clearly we have come across as pushy, and for that I wholeheartedly apologise. £2M from a standing start less than two years ago is pretty impressive by any measure, and I can't imagine the context in which anyone would suggest otherwise. On the whole the people who sell Brightpearl do a very good job of presenting the benefits of our own product, and this thread serves as a reminder that to do otherwise is not a good idea.

My job, as head of product for Brightpearl, is to continually improve our software to ensure it is the best tool on the market for driving growth in our customers' businesses. Systems such as Linnworks/Tradebox/Sage offer different ways to solve similar problems, and ultimately that competition will drive better solutions for merchants. I would encourage everyone reading this to carefully weigh up the alternatives in the light of their specific requirements. Clearly, I hope that you will conclude that Brightpearl is the right choice, but whether you do or not, we wish you every success.