TradeGecko / QB Commerce Sunset
On June 9, 2021, it was announced that TradeGecko (a.k.a the QuickBooks Commerce standalone product) will be retiring on June 10, 2022. Existing customers will continue to receive product support until that date, and existing accounts will continue to function as normal up to June 10, 2022.
QuickBooks wants to integrate TradeGecko/ QuickBooks Commerce with QuickBooks Online in the US to create a more durable product. For US customers, QuickBooks Commerce will continue to be available as part of the QuickBooks Online bundle. However, the standalone product will be retired and you will need to pay extra to access both products.
TradeGecko is most suited to smaller B2B and manufacturing companies, which don’t necessarily require a high level of scalability and flexibility. But with the original product effectively closed to new customers, and existing customers not keen to pay extra for the bundle, it might be time to check out alternative inventory management software.
First, let’s take a look at what TradeGecko has to offer.
What are TradeGecko’s features?
TradeGecko offers a range of features to automate your inventory, although not as many as some alternative solutions. Here are the main functions:
- Inventory control
- Batch and expiry tracking
- Multiple locations
- CRM
- Sales
- Purchasing
- Reporting
In terms of inventory control, TradeGecko helps you generate lists, view product status and history, and see stock-on-hand values. Users can also handle batch-tracking, retrieve purchase orders, track product variants in different warehouses, and transfer stock.
There’s a CRM tool with customer and supplier databases, and the sales section lets you create and edit sales orders and custom price lists. You can oversee the purchasing process with bills of materials, stock notifications, and production reconciliation.
The reporting function covers sales history, reorder reports, incoming stock reports from wholesalers, and offers demand forecasting. However, this feature is not as advanced or insightful as others on the market, such as Brightpearl.
Source: Jodiob.com
TradeGecko Specs
Now that you’ve got an idea of TradeGecko’s main features, let’s dive into the technical specifications on offer.
Inventory management integrations
TradeGecko offers a range of native and third-party integrations, such as ecommerce apps, POS (point of sale), shipping, and reporting. Some of the most popular integrations include Shopify Plus, WooCommerce, Fulfillment by Amazon, and Zapier.
Compatible devices
QuickBooks Commerce is the updated version of TradeGecko. The tool can be accessed from your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, and features your product catalog, a pocket CRM, and offline access.
TradeGecko drawbacks
TradeGecko has its advantages, but there are also some downsides—even before you consider the sunsetting issue. For example, large multichannel businesses with complex fulfillment requirements, like dropshipping or back order management, may find that it doesn’t offer enough flexibility.
Similarly, if you need in-depth reporting capabilities, TradeGecko falls a little short. Unlike some of the alternative retail operating systems and inventory management solutions, it doesn’t come with integrated real-time accounting or integrated POS. Neither does it have flexible order management or flexible payment options.
And if you’re looking for guidance and training as you get the system up and running, you might prefer to look at software with more in the way of support.
What are alternatives to TradeGecko?
Whether you’re a business looking for a new inventory management system or an existing TradeGecko customer concerned about the sunset announcement, don’t worry. There are plenty of high-quality alternatives to TradeGecko out there today. Let’s take a look at some of the very best:
1. Brightpearl
Brightpearl is a retail operating system designed specifically for omnichannel retail and wholesale merchants. The user-friendly system gives you comprehensive functionality, including sales order management, inventory management, demand planning optimization, shipping and order fulfillment, warehouse management, retail accounting, and much more.
Because it was built for the retail industry, you won’t find yourself paying for expensive customizations and unnecessary functionality. Brightpearl is also designed to be scalable as your business grows, and it’s perfect for agile companies.
One of Brightpearl’s top features is its powerful automation engine, which helps you save time by automating repeatable operations like sales order workflows, email marketing, and customer service. It’s built to handle high order volumes, and users can even create their own automation rules for things like automatic fulfillment or dropshipping orders from a certain sales channel.
Advanced reporting and business intelligence is built into Brightpearl (unlike TradeGecko), giving you access to deep product and customer insights. You also get advanced warehouse management in a separate dedicated interface, plus fully-flexible payment options.
Brightpearl also integrates seamlessly with a huge number of third-party partners including Shopify, Amazon, Xero, and many more. This allows merchants to use multiple connectors with confidence, knowing that they have been implemented correctly and by experts. And you can use the API to create your own integrations.
What’s more, Brightpearl offers 24-hour support and a dedicated Customer Success Manager. Your staff will receive full training, and you can access ongoing recommendations to optimize your operational workflows.
2. Unleashed
Unleashed is an integrated inventory software solution that offers real-time insights into inventory and business processes for better supply chain management.
Users appreciate its well-designed interface, regular software updates, and the seamless integration with Xero accounting software as well as Salesforce, Magento, and Shopify. However, the downsides include a lack of flexibility in reporting, and the lack of options for customization.
Unleashed is available in various pricing tiers, all aimed at medium-to-large enterprises (which tells you that the price is on the high side). If you choose the premium tiers, you’ll get a comprehensive set of features. But this can be a little overwhelming, and requires a steep learning curve to get to grips with everything.
3. Veeqo
Veeqo is another inventory and shipping platform for ecommerce merchants. It syncs inventory across multiple ecommerce sales channels including Magento, eBay, Etsy, and Walmart.
The platform wins praise for being cost-effective, simple to use, and updated regularly with new features. Users also enjoy the helpful customer support, although Veeqo doesn’t offer the comprehensive onboarding and training of a company like Brightpearl.
There are also a couple of irritations with the time-consuming setup, and the fact it doesn’t integrate in real-time with major accounting solutions like Xero and QuickBooks. And for full automation options and business intelligence reporting, you’d have to look elsewhere.
4. Zoho Inventory
Zoho Inventory is a stock management solution with a decent range of features including barcodes, kitting, search filters, serialized inventory tracking, order entry, and custom pricing options.
It’s an affordable solution for small businesses, but large companies may come up against limitations on things like the number of allowed users, orders, invoices, bills, or shipping labels. All paid plans get two hours of free set-up assistance, but that’s about it for dedicated customer support.
Zoho also lacks location scanning, and the ability to fully customize workflows. Some users have experienced frustration over invoicing, and the reporting capabilities are limited. That means it’s not truly effective as a standalone app—although you do have access to third-party integrations.
Brightpearl Vs. TradeGecko
Brightpearl is an advanced SaaS alternative to TradeGecko with heightened features and a retail focus. With Brightpearl, users get all the features a retailer could need, all from one intuitive and scalable platform.
Brightpearl Vs. TradeGecko features
Brightpearl is a robust and feature-rich TradeGecko alternative and a great choice if you’re looking for a new platform to replace TradeGecko. Take a look at this list of features that Brightpearl has and TradeGecko is missing:
| Brightpearl | TradeGecko | |
| 24-hour support | ✅ | ❌ Only for pro customers |
| Dedicated customer service manager | ✅ | ❌ |
| Integrated real-time accounting | ✅ | ❌ |
| Full-service implementation | ✅ | ❌ |
| High volume connectors | ✅ | ❌ |
| Advanced workflow automation | ✅ | ❌ |
| Flexible order management | ✅ | ❌ |
| Integrated POS | ✅ | ❌ |
| Flexible payment options | ✅ | ❌ |
Why choose Brightpearl over Tradegecko?
Unlike an ERP, Brightpearl is designed for retailers who are seeking growth in the omnichannel world. Whether you’re seeing order volumes soar, expanding your business into new sales channels or new countries, or adopting a new business model like DTC, Brightpearl has your back.
With its Automation Engine, you can streamline all the critical but time-consuming operations throughout your entire order to cash process. So you can deal with higher order volumes with ease. And Brightpearl also has all the features for retail and wholesale, so you can easily go DTC, keeping your wholesale business running efficiently.
Plus, Brightpearl understands that nowadays no one vendor can provide all the best-in-breed functionality to keep up with consumers’ ever-changing demands. So they offer a great partner network and API functionality that allows merchants to easily plug in any additional integrations. This means you’ll have the freedom to not only grow your business, but also your back office tech stack.
You’re unlikely to have all these features with TradeGecko as they’re more tailored to B2B and manufacturing businesses, and they target smaller companies that might not need the same level of scalability and flexibility as larger companies do.
Frequently asked questions
Who uses TradeGecko?
The majority of companies using TradeGecko operate in the US retail industry. TradeGecko is predominantly used by companies with between 10 and 50 employees.
How much does TradeGecko cost?
As QuickBooks Commerce (previously known as TradeGecko) is being sunset outside the US market, you can no longer subscribe to it if your company is not registered in the US. And for US customers, they’re integrating QuickBooks Commerce and QuickBooks Online in the same bundle. You can get the bundle from $20/month for the first 12 months. However, it’s unclear what will happen in June 2022 when QuickBooks Commerce (TradeGecko) is completely sunset, and what the bundle offering will be.
When did TradeGecko stop accepting new customers?
The TradeGecko (QuickBooks Commerce) standalone product was shut to new customers from June 9, 2021.