Comparing Brightpearl vs Linnworks: Which Inventory Management is Best For You

Welcome to the worlds of Brightpearl and Linnworks, two well-established inventory and order management solutions with plenty of features designed to help you build your business.

You’ve probably visited both websites and discovered that Brightpearl wants your retail company to ‘grow fearlessly’ and Linnworks wants you to say ‘goodbye manual processes’ - and you want to do both!

Which means, you want to know how to choose an inventory management solution that will best suit your business.

Linnworks and Brightpearl offer you customizable tools, inventory and order management optimization, and smart automation capabilities. They are designed to help you better manage your business and help you thrive, capture opportunities and grow successfully.

In this article, we will be digging into the pros and cons of Brightpearl and Linnworks so you can see how each one could potentially fit into your business. We’ll also show you how Veeqo’s free inventory management solution could be an even better fit for your business.

What is Brightpearl?

First off, let’s start with Brightpearl. Brightpearl was established in 2007 by two entrepreneurs who designed the system to help them manage their own challenges with scale in their retail business. 

The company, now a part of the Sage Group, is focused on providing retail businesses with tools that help them thrive in challenging times and take advantages of the opportunities that present themselves.

Brightpearl includes an array of tools and capabilities designed to minimize friction within your business while helping you optimize systems and improve customer service.

How does Brightpearl optimize inventory management?

The Brightpearl solution has a heavy focus on automation with the claim that your eCommerce business can automate nearly everything.

The solution positions its inventory management and order management together, but we have broken it down into two sections to make it easier for you to see the different features included and better compare it with Linnworks.

Some of the key features of Brightpearl include:

• Brightpearl lets you manage your stock across multiple channels with real-time updates across your different channels and locations. This includes visibility into orders, returns and warehouse transfers.

• Automated stock level management with visibility into stock numbers that significantly reduces the manual burden, especially for companies that operate across multiple channels and warehouses.

• Inventory accounting is simplified with easy integration with accounting solutions such as Sage Intacct, Quickbooks and Xero.

• You can manage your inventory across multiple locations and use data-driven insights to undertake smart forecasting and inventory planning. The solution helps you balance your stock levels against customer demand while minimizing the risk of keeping your cash tied up in inventory.

• Visibility into inventory that’s focused on reducing loss, shrinkage, damage and theft without needing to undertaken full-cycle counting, plus Insights around sales and product performance so you can better manage purchasing decisions and customer demands. And all on one dashboard for ease of use.

How does Brightpearl support order management?

Linnworks order management software is focused on removing the complexities that come with managing orders and processes.

With a strong focus on automation and intelligent tools, the order management solution connects your data, channels, orders and fulfilments and pulls them together in one space so you have crystal-clear visibility.

Some of the key features included in the Brightpearl order management tool are:

• The Brightpearl Automation Engine is designed to simplify order fulfilment with intelligent suggestions, customized rules for automation, route optimization, and more. You can set your own automation rules for anything from order routing to invoicing to dropshipping.

• Your orders are fulfilled from the most efficient and relevant inventory location and optimized for delivery.

• Integrations across multiple platforms and channels so you can rapidly meet customer demand and identify trends at speed.

• Workflows across returns, sales order cloning, refunds and order processing are automated and flexible to improve control and visibility.

How much does Brightpearl cost?

Brightpearl doesn’t have a set pricing structure, they will quote you based on your business requirements. According to their site, you will get complete transparency into the costs so you can plan ahead and better manage your cash flow.

You can find out more directly from Brightpearl here.

What is Linnworks?

Linnworks was established in 2005 with the goal of providing online retails with a comprehensive range of tools designed to help you refine your eCommerce business operations. 

The solution includes order management, inventory management, multi-channel listings, shipping management, data-driven insights, warehouse management and stock forecasting.

Linnworks helps you reduce the stresses of manual admin around order and inventory management with tools that help you to streamline and automate your systems.

How does Linnworks optimize inventory management?

Linnworks’ inventory management software helps you to minimize the risk of stockouts or overstocking, use your data to more accurately manage customer demand, and manage your inventory across multiple locations and channels.

Some of the key features of Linnworks include:

• You can sync your inventory across a variety of different sales channels and warehouse locations which means you can closely manage your stock levels to match customer demand. Linnworks includes more than 70 marketplaces and multi-channel integration options.

• Your data, insights, stock volumes and inventory details are all available on one dashboard so you get complete visibility across multiple locations and environments.

• The data and insights provided by the solution can be used to monitor trends and sales which helps you make informed decisions around which stock you buy, when you buy it and what sales channels are best suited to different types of stock.

• Manual processes are ditched in favor of smart automation that combines with data-driven decision-making to make it easier for you to optimize your workflows and manage customer demands.

• You can see how your inventory is moving across multiple warehouses, sales channels, and locations.

• Automation tools that include product listings, out of stock marking, inventory monitoring, stock-in and stock-out management, and open order tracking.

How does Linnworks support order management?

Linnworks order management software is focused on removing the complexities that come with managing orders and processes.

With a strong focus on automation and intelligent tools, the order management solution connects your data, channels, orders and fulfilments and pulls them together in one space so you have crystal-clear visibility.

Some of the key features included in the Linnworks order management tool are:

• From assigning orders to warehouses to purchase orders to workflows, you can automate many of your core processes with this solution.

• You can speed up fulfilment times by connecting your orders with warehouse locations or 3PLs so that they are assigned to the most efficient fulfilment location.

• Data-driven decision-making within the order management system which will help you better manage your inventory and customer demand.

• You can reduce the risk of overselling thanks to synced inventory and data visibility, streamline your shipping processes by merging orders, and speed up fulfilment with batch order processing.

• Integrate multiple shipping carriers into one system so the best shipping option is automatically selected when the orders are shipped. Linnworks has an impressive array of shipping management integrations that include ShipStation, UPS, USPS, FedEx, ShipBob and Ruby Has.

• You can create shipping manifests, print labels in bulk, auto-assign order packing, and improve workflows.

• Enjoy a variety of customer relationship management tools that include order visibility, refunds, exchange management, email updates and return management.

How much does Linnworks cost?

Linnworks doesn’t provide pricing information on its website so you would need to book a demo with them to find out how much your particular combination of order and inventory management tools will cost your company.

You can find out more directly from Linnworks here.

What are the Pros and Cons of Brightpearl vs Linnworks

So which platform is right for your business? Here we list the top four pros and the top four cons for each platform so you can make the best choice for your success story.

The Pros of Linnworks

• It includes an impressive array of inventory management functionalities and automation capabilities that make it very easy for you to control and optimize your inventory.

• It includes more than 70 integrations across multiple platforms and sales channels.

• Customer support is provided across multiple channels that include phone, online, tutorials, blog posts and an impressive knowledge base.

• Customizable features, services and functions that make it easy to create a solution that fits your business.

The Cons of Linnworks

• There is no visibility into the cost of implementing and running the solution.

• Reviewers have highlighted that the platform isn’t that easy to use and can take time to get to know before realizing its full potential.

• Label printing and management can be challenging.

• There have been reviews commenting on bugs and integration issues but these have been balanced by how quickly Linnworks provides support.

The Pros of Brightpearl

• Brightpearl’s pricing may not be available on the website because they need to create customized quote, but they do promise transparent pricing with unlimited users at no extra cost.

• The solution can handle impressive trading volumes and is easily integrated across multiple channels while providing real-time insights that can help you make important decisions at speed.

• The Brightpearl Automation Engine makes it very easy to automate a huge number of processes and significantly reduce your need to wade through slow and tedious manual tasks.

• Plug-and-play integrations across multiple channels and tools that can be implemented quickly to meet customer demand.

The Cons of Brightpearl

Brightpearl reviews have highlighted that the platform can be complicated to manage and setup.

Support has had variable reviews with some people praising it for its speed and proficiency while others have felt it was lacking.

Thing is, there is also Veeqo

While both Linnworks and Brightpearl come with plenty of features, tools and automation capabilities, they can be expensive. Veeqo, on the other hand, is free.

Part of the Amazon family and providing you with smart and capable automation tools designed to simplify your shopping, automate your shipping processes, track your orders and optimize your stock management and control Veeqo is easy to use and implement.

We provide you with seamless workflow management, inventory and order management, optimized shipping capabilities, and rapid integration across multiple sales channels and platforms.

You also get data-driven insights and decision-making, visibility into stock levels, and customer service optimization tools.

We understand that you want a solution designed to help you tightly manage your inventory to reduce the risks of excess inventory or obsolete stock, as these can be very expensive for your ecommerce business.

We also know that the right inventory control software can help your business achieve growth and scale that suit you and your goals (read our guide on ways to do just that, right here) and that you want to maximize your order management and fulfilment processes.

And we know that Veeqo is ideally placed to help you do all this, and so much more.

If you want to explore more around what Veeqo can provide and how it compares to Linnworks, read Veeqo vs Linnworks comparison guide.

Now it’s up to you to choose the solution that best fits your business and your needs but why not create your free Veeqo account today and discover how simple order and inventory management can be.