240+ apps, seven years, and global scale: How Brainence extends Linnworks’ CommerceOps platform

In e-commerce, operational chaos is the silent killer. Too many systems, too many tabs, too many manual processes slowing every order down. Linnworks fixes that. As a Connected CommerceOps platform, it pulls the entire retail operation — orders, inventory, listings, warehouses, fulfilment, and marketplace connections — under one roof.

For seven years, Brainence has been one of Linnworks’ trusted certified partners, working deep inside the platform to build the custom apps, macros, integrations, and UI enhancements that automate the workflows retailers can’t scale without.

To dive into how this ecosystem works — and why extensibility has become a competitive advantage — our CEO, Andrii Kornytskii, sat down with Christopher Ralph, Partner Services and Connectivity Manager at Linnworks.

A: What does your role entail, and how do partnerships fit into the Linnworks ecosystem?

C: My role is to look after the partner ecosystem at Linnworks. I use the word ecosystem deliberately, because while Linnworks’ bread and butter is inventory management — helping customers save time and money across their e-commerce strategy — partnerships take them to the next level. Whether it’s expanding into new marketplaces, entering new geographies, or increasing the functionality and capabilities of the Linnworks platform, that’s where partners come in. And that’s what I’m going to talk about today, because Brainence has been a massive part of that partnership ecosystem, building apps such as the Advanced Order Allocator.

A: From your perspective, what value do partners bring to both Linnworks and its customers?

C: All partners at Linnworks bring value by aligning around one mutual objective: helping customers grow. But one thing you cannot teach is experience.

I’ve been on calls with them at midnight, even 2 a.m., supporting our US customers. That level of customer service is a real point of difference.

Because the work we do together is often complex, our communication and scopes have to be thorough. The Brainence team, our internal team, and I spend a lot of time discussing the best route forward for a customer and how to achieve a particular goal in the smartest way.

A: How do you typically collaborate with Brainence during these projects?

C: There are multiple ways to do this. Some people use Slack; we use email. But because of the partner-facing nature of the Brainence team, we often involve them directly in conversations with customers. I can trust them to act in the best interest of the customer, Linnworks, and Brainence simultaneously. If you want to verify any of this, just visit our services portal or Trustpilot — customers consistently highlight Brainence’s support.

A: Can you quantify Brainence’s contribution to the Linnworks platform?

C: Over the last seven years, it’s been really hard to even measure the full extent of their contributions. They have more than 240 applications in the Linnworks App Store — both public and private — including roughly 190 macros and around 50 independent applications and extensions. Their experience is vast, and their impact on extending customer functionality is significant. And I’ll say: watch this space. There’s more coming.

A: What are some examples of Brainence-built tools that customers rely on?

C: Brainence has contributed a lot to our customer ecosystem, and they have built those big, sexy apps like DPD — the ones that help businesses grow. But what people often don’t see are the countless smaller applications that extend Linnworks functionality behind the scenes.

One of our customers’ favourite applications is the Advanced Order Allocator, which has extremely high usage. But they’ve also built tools like the Postcode Lookup and many more. Feel free to enter the App Store, type “Brainence,” and see the full list of what they’ve contributed, if you want to extend your capabilities.

There will be certain prerequisites that some potential prospects may need — whether that’s a specific piece of functionality, automation, or even a custom bit of UI, like having a particular button in the system to process orders. We discuss all of this with the prospect before they sign up with Linnworks, and over the years, Brainence has helped us with these deals.

A: What role does Brainence play in customer retention and expansion?

C: In terms of retention, it’s hard to quantify because customers who are renewing aren’t always saying, “We need this or we’ll leave.” More often, Brainence gets involved when customers are asking, “How do I take the next step in my ecosystem? I want to expand to Germany — how do I do that? I want to ship into these new locations — what do I need?” And this is where we bring in our certified customisation partners, such as Brainence, to really help these customers take the next step in their e-commerce strategy.

A: Is the ecosystem a big part of why customers choose Linnworks?

C: Yes! The ecosystem is one of the things customers love most: the ability to connect, grow, and build. Brainence is a vital cog in that machine — extending functionality and enabling growth within Linnworks. So yes, the short answer is: it’s incredibly important.

A: Linnworks is known primarily for inventory management. How do partners like Brainence support customers’ broader growth ambitions?

C: Although Linnworks’ bread and butter is an inventory management system, customers join Linnworks because they’re on an ambitious growth journey. With Linnworks, they see a way to fulfil that ambition by extending into new marketplaces, new territories, and by automating processes to save time and money while building out their e-commerce strategy. Brainence, of course, and the partner ecosystem in general, are a vital cog in that strategy — not just for our customers but for Linnworks. We see them, and I hope they see us, as being a part of our product’s future.

A: What does it mean to be a certified Linnworks partner, and where does Brainence stand in that landscape?

C: Linnworks works only with excellent and trusted partners. Every partner we recommend is fully certified — and that certification is a rigorous, difficult process. Every partner in our services portal is there because we trust them wholeheartedly. Brainence is a major part of that group. If you look at the five-star reviews customers have left after working with them, you’ll see why.

We get many reasons why partners join Linnworks, but it comes down to how closely we’re intertwined and how strongly we push for excellence for our shared customers — we genuinely scale together. We’re not looking for short-term relationships to build a quick macro. The relationships we have with our partners, our customers, and within Linnworks are built for the future.