Oct 29, 2026 earnings call — Agentic AI MAX and faster customer onboarding
Revenue was $197.6 million and adjusted EBITDA rose to 36% of revenue.
Revenue $0.2B (est $0.2B) · EPS $1.39 (est $1.23) · Next-quarter revenue outlook $0.2B–$0.2B
Key quotes
"For SPS customers, our agentic AI, called MAX, plays a central role in driving supply chain efficiencies by embedding the SPS network intelligence directly into trading partner workflows and automation systems."
"Since adopting agentic onboarding, hundreds of suppliers have achieved full compliance with new trading partners within 24 hours."
"So on the revision of the guidance, Scott, 100% of that was related to the Amazon policy changes and the acceleration of moving customers from take rate to subscription."
Analyst Q&A 10
Amazon policy change impact
Q (Scott Berg · Needham): Analyst asked if Amazon policy changes drove the lower fourth-quarter guidance and whether the Amazon impact is permanent or mitigated by moving customers from take-rate to subscription.
A: Management said 100% of the guidance revision was due to Amazon policy changes and the acceleration of moving customers from take rate to subscription. They said if not for those changes they would have raised full-year guidance. They also said revenue recovery excluding Amazon take-rate is the fastest-growing part of the business and conversion to subscription is underway though take rate will not go to zero.
"So on the revision of the guidance, Scott, 100% of that was related to the Amazon policy changes and the acceleration of moving customers from take rate to subscription." — Joseph Del Preto
Drivers of margin improvement
Q (Morgan Stanley): Analyst asked which areas are driving margin progress (AI onboarding, automation, expense discipline) and how much runway remains, and also asked whether Amazon policy changes were new.
A: Management said gross margin has been the biggest driver so far, mostly from process improvements over the last 12 to 15 months, and agentic onboarding is a recent rollout that will drive more margin improvement over the next 12 to 18 months. They also said G&A benefits come from prior back-office investments and internal AI use cases. Separately, they said the Amazon policy changes related to short shipments and the ability to redispute submissions, and both were new in the quarter.
"These policy changes related to the situation when one of our suppliers makes a short shipment to Amazon, also a process around our ability to redispute around policy, redispute a submission." — Chad Collins
MAX adoption and capital
Q (Jackson Bogli · William Blair): Analyst asked how customers are responding to MAX since general availability and whether that drives deeper engagement, and also asked about confidence in the growth algorithm and capital allocation choices.
A: Management said customer feedback on MAX Chat is very positive with high return usage, and they are co-developing MAX agent features with about 20 customers and expect to expand early adopters to about 200 as they move from Q4 to Q1. They said the core growth algorithm is durable with ARPU expansion from more connections and product upsells, and that the company is currently buying back stock in the market every day as its main capital use.
"And a large number of those customers are heavy MAX Chat users who are very anxious to get access to the new MAX agent capability that's coming." — Chad Collins
Agentic onboarding margin effect
Q (George Michael Kurosawa · Citi): Analyst asked whether the 8%–9% exit rate is a guide for 2027 momentum and how much agentic onboarding has affected Q3 gross margins and the share of onboarding that can be done agentically.
A: Management declined to give 2027 guidance but said they feel confident momentum in the core will continue and cited improving GRR and product stickiness from agentic onboarding. They said agentic onboarding's gross margin impact so far is minimal, but it has helped win new customers by shortening onboarding time; hundreds of simple web-form customers were onboarded in hours and select complex ERP projects used agent-assisted onboarding. They added there is about 12 more months of roadmap and expect margin improvement as agentic onboarding rolls out across ERP integrations over the next 12 to 18 months.
"I think about the gross margin impact specifically from agentic onboarding, frankly, is kind of minimal." — Chad Collins
Take-rate to subscription conversion
Q (Matthew VanVliet · Cantor): Analyst asked how contract economics change when customers switch from take-rate to subscription and what percentage have shifted so far, and asked about competitive landscape and retailer enablement traction.
A: Management said customers convert to subscription after proving recovery volume and seeing value from added analytics and chargeback features; conversion results in a subscription amount tied to historical recoveries. They said they lead with subscription but will still accept take-rate to win business when competitive dynamics require it, and that a minority of the Carbon6 customers have converted so far while conversion is underway. They also said retail programs remain a strong and somewhat unique lead source, with recent programs skewing more to ARPU than to new low-revenue customer count.
"It's still the minority of those customers that have converted to subscription, but that conversion is underway." — Chad Collins
What exceeded expectations this quarter
Q (Lachlan Brown · Rothschild & Company): Analyst asked what went better than expected in the core fulfillment business and requested an update on campaign pipeline visibility and the mix between new customer onboarding and expanding existing connections, and whether holiday delays are expected.
A: Management said stronger-than-expected ARPU came from retail campaigns and that GRR was really solid and came ahead of plan, and they also noted momentum in subscription within Revenue Recovery. They said the pipeline is strong for Q4 and into 2027, they do not anticipate delays though some programs have not yet kicked off and could be subject to delay, and that recent programs aligned with the strategy of lower customer-add growth but higher ARPU growth.
"It continues to increase on a year-over-year basis, and that came ahead of plan." — Joseph Del Preto
Decision Intelligence and sales changes
Q (Mark Schappel · Loop): Analyst asked about early demand for the replatformed analytics product (Decision Intelligence), its pricing versus the old offering, and what sales or coverage changes the Chief Commercial Officer has implemented.
A: Management said they replatformed analytics into Decision Intelligence and customer sentiment and retention metrics on the new platform are more favorable than the old one, making them more competitive in new business and enabling an AI roadmap planned for the first half of 2027. They also said they segmented the retail salesforce into account managers for existing customers and separate reps for new business, and aligned customer success more closely with sales to drive ARPU expansion and improved retention.
"One, the customer sentiment and the supporting retention metrics for the customers that have gone on to this new platform are more favorable than the old platform." — Chad Collins
ARPU focus and MAX monetization
Q (John McShane · Stifel): Analyst asked whether the shift to ARPU-driven growth is temporary or durable and how they weigh cross-sell and new connections, and asked how they will balance broad MAX adoption with monetization and where AI budget will come from.
A: Management said three main ARPU drivers are expansion of trading partners, cross-sell of analytics and revenue recovery, and the MAX agent SKU in 2027, and that serving larger customers also raises ARPU. On MAX monetization, they said they will favor broad adoption, will charge for MAX agents in 2027, and will focus on driving adoption first so customers see value before they take price.
"I mean, we believe that this provides value and the more customers have access to it and use it, the value becomes more apparent for them, and that will allow us to take price over the relationship with the customer." — Chad Collins
Why SPS leads in agentic AI
Q (Clark Wright · D.A. Davidson): Analyst asked what makes SPS uniquely positioned to provide agentic capabilities versus off-the-shelf AI, and whether the company can proactively reduce financial impact from policy changes.
A: Management said their advantage is data: customer data on the SPS network, trending across buyers on the network, and proprietary retailer trading-expectation databases and rule sets that are often undocumented. They said combining those data sets unlocks powerful use cases that generic AI tools lack, and that adding features for total chargeback management, preventing chargebacks, and migrating to subscription will help mitigate policy-change impacts, though they expect to offer take-rate options for competitive reasons for at least the next couple of years.
"When we combine the customers' data, the trending data on the network, and these very unique supply chain rule sets we have about each major retailer, that combination is really unlocking some very powerful use cases." — Chad Collins
Commerce agents and policy math
Q (Joseph Vruwink · Baird): Analyst asked how personal commerce agents will change supply chain expectations and what SPS needs to do on the backend, and asked how much of the reported impact was from policy changes versus mechanical conversion to subscription.
A: Management said commerce agents will raise supply-chain expectations, increasing needs for collaboration and faster timing, which makes a transactional network like SPS more important and opens opportunities as agents move into merchandising and vendor management. They also said a majority of the reported impact was from the policy changes, with conversion from take rate to subscription being a smaller portion of the impact.
"A majority of it is from the policy changes, Joe, that would be a majority of that impact." — Joseph Del Preto