Spreetail's Smart Shelf wins Silver Stevie award for Technology Excellence. Recognition highlights AI-powered operating system's role in driving 40% average sales growth for brand partners and helping Spreetail surpass $1 billion in GMV in a single year. LINCOLN, Neb., July 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Spreetail, the leading ecommerce marketplace accelerator for durable goods, today announced its Smart Shelf AI-powered operating system has won Silver in the 2026 Stevie Awards for Technology Excellence. Smart Shelf was honored in the Technical Innovation of the Year - Retail & E-Commerce Technology category, with judges rating it an "exceptional innovation that transforms traditional e-commerce acceleration." Smart Shelf is fully embedded into Spreetail's live retail and fulfillment operations. It measures and optimizes pricing, listings, advertising, delivery promises and performance data in real time. Its five integrated capabilities - Listing Doctor, Price Pulse, Promise Pro, True Ads, and Brand Experience Portal - work together and come at no additional cost to brand partners. Smart Shelf has helped Spreetail deliver 40%+ average sales growth for partners within their first 12 months and has helped the company surpass $1 billion in GMV in a single year. "Smart Shelf is something our team has been building and refining for a while now - seeing it recognized validates the value we're creating," said Josh Ketter, Global CEO at Spreetail. "Our technology is built into how we price, advertise, and ship every day. The result we're chasing is simple: help our brands grow without adding to their bill." The Stevie Awards judges praised the nomination: * "An exceptional innovation that transforms traditional e-commerce acceleration by embedding a robust, real-time AI operating system directly into live fulfillment and retail infrastructure, proven by massive GMV scale in the industry's most challenging logistically complex product categories." * "Spreetail's Smart Shelf Suite is a standout nomination. The five integrated capabilities and the no-additional-cost model represent a compelling, differentiated approach to e-commerce technology innovation." * "I love the team's novel approach with its Smart Shelf solution. Combining AI with deep domain expertise makes this a strong contender, especially given the operational savings achieved. I'd also like to see how this technology could be adapted to other industries, where similar challenges and opportunities exist." Spreetail was purpose-built to solve one of ecommerce's hardest problems: big-and-bulky products like appliances or outdoor equipment that most logistics providers struggle to move efficiently. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the company is now a top-5 seller on Amazon, Walmart and Target and operates across 20+ channels. Through its 12 fulfillment centers globally it offers same-day shipping on 99.8% of products. The Stevie Awards for Technology Excellence honor exceptional accomplishments by individuals, teams, and organizations advancing innovation and shaping the future of technology. This year's program drew more than 700 nominations from organizations of all sizes in 37 nations and territories. Winners will be celebrated at a red carpet ceremony on October 28 in Paris, France. About Spreetail Spreetail accelerates ecommerce growth for brands by combining marketplace expertise, operational infrastructure, and proprietary technology. Brands expand market share across 20+ channels globally including Amazon, Walmart, Target+, TikTok Shop, and more while simplifying the operational complexity behind ecommerce growth. Through integrated fulfillment, real-time performance intelligence, and full-funnel marketplace execution, Spreetail enables brands to scale faster and operate more efficiently - partners average 40% sales growth in year one, backed by a 97% in-stock rate, 99.8% same-day ship confirmation, and next-day delivery reach to 85% of the U.S. population. Learn how Spreetail can accelerate your marketplace growth: spreetail.com. Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. Alabama Cultural Times do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.

Amazon Now pushes 30-minute delivery to dozens of cities. Ultra-fast service expands from pilot to commercial scale in Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, and Philadelphia - raising delivery-speed pressure on retailers and last-mile carriers already squeezed by tariffs and fuel costs. Amazon customers in dozens of U.S. cities can now receive orders in 30 minutes or less as the company scales Amazon Now from limited pilot to wide commercial rollout, the company announced Tuesday. The service is now widely available in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Seattle, with rapid expansion underway in Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver, and Oklahoma City. Amazon plans to reach tens of millions of shoppers in these and other cities by year-end. How does Amazon Now 30-minute delivery work? Amazon Now operates from strategically located urban micro-fulfillment centers where on-demand workers pick up packaged orders. The centers position essential products close to neighborhoods and work districts, using advanced inventory systems that optimize product selection based on hyperlocal demand. The shorter distance delivery associates travel enables the 30-minute window. Where available, customers see a "30-Minute Delivery" banner in the Amazon app or homepage. Prime members pay a discounted delivery fee of $3.99 per order; non-Prime customers pay $13.99. An additional small-order fee of $1.99 for Prime members and $3.99 for non-Prime applies to orders below $15. In most areas the service runs 24 hours a day. Amazon Now provides thousands of fresh grocery, personal care, electronics, and household items - essentially competing with DoorDash, Instacart, and Uber Eats, which have expanded beyond food delivery into merchandise. Amazon last year began testing ultra-fast delivery in parts of Seattle and Philadelphia and currently offers it in nine countries, including the United Arab Emirates, India, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and the U.K. What does faster Amazon delivery mean for last-mile carriers and retailers? The expansion arrives when competitors like Walmart and Target are dealing with tariff pressure, higher fuel costs, and thinner margins, according to Joshua Ketter, global CEO of marketplace seller Spreetail. Amazon's success training consumers to expect same-day delivery - and now near-instant delivery - has proved costly to other retailers and delivery companies that try to match its services, Ketter said. Amazon is raising the delivery bar again with this rollout. Last year more than 13 billion items worldwide were delivered to Prime members the same day or next day. In the U.S., Prime members received over eight billion items same or next day, an increase of more than 30% from 2024, with groceries and everyday essentials making up half the total, according to the retailer. Amazon also offers one-hour and three-hour delivery on more than 90,000 products and same-day delivery on millions of items. The company has also promised to significantly scale up its Prime Air drone delivery service, which will offer a much wider selection than Amazon Now. Prime Air delivery in under 60 minutes is available in nine U.S. locations so far. Some retailers are trying to buck the trend by offering deferred delivery service for customers that aren't in a rush. A McKinsey survey last year found that 90% of customers are willing to wait at least two to three days for their deliveries if the shipping is free. Why this matters for truckload carriers. The micro-fulfillment model Amazon Now relies on shifts freight volume away from long-haul truckload lanes into dense urban last-mile networks. As Amazon and competitors push more inventory into city-center micro-hubs, the upstream truckload move becomes a spoke-to-hub transfer rather than a direct-to-consumer linehaul. That changes lane density and backhaul opportunity for carriers serving e-commerce distribution. The 30% year-over-year increase in same-day and next-day Prime deliveries signals sustained pressure on retailers to match speed, which in turn drives demand for expedited LTL and final-mile capacity - but at rates that reflect the cost squeeze Ketter described. Carriers serving retail and e-commerce shippers should expect continued requests for faster transit commitments and tighter delivery windows, even as fuel and tariff costs climb. For fleets running dedicated Amazon or retail contracts, the expansion of Amazon Now into dozens of new metro areas means potential volume growth in urban shuttle and cross-dock lanes, but also heightened performance requirements. The 24-hour operating window in most markets implies round-the-clock dock access and driver availability. Carriers without the infrastructure to support sub-hour delivery windows will find themselves priced out of the fastest-growing segment of e-commerce logistics. Those that can meet the speed and density requirements face a different challenge: the on-demand labor model Amazon uses for final delivery keeps the company's per-package cost variable, while truckload carriers absorb fixed costs for equipment, insurance, and driver wages. The result is a structural margin gap that makes it difficult for traditional carriers to compete on price in the ultra-fast segment without sacrificing service quality or driver retention. The broader takeaway: Amazon's ability to scale 30-minute delivery to tens of millions of customers by year-end reflects capital investment in micro-fulfillment infrastructure that most retailers cannot match. That investment shifts the competitive baseline for delivery speed upward, forcing retailers and their carrier partners to either match the new standard or cede market share. For truckload carriers, the question is not whether ultra-fast delivery will grow - Amazon's 30% year-over-year increase in same-day and next-day volume answers that - but whether the rates and lane structures that emerge from this shift will support sustainable margins. The McKinsey finding that 90% of customers will wait two to three days for free shipping offers a counterpoint, but Amazon's continued investment in speed suggests the company believes the remaining 10% - or the perception of speed across the entire customer base - justifies the cost.

Spreetail, an e-commerce marketplace accelerator, has launched BEx (Brand Experience Portal), a real-time dashboard giving brand partners visibility into performance across marketplaces, advertising and fulfilment operations. Unlike traditional reporting tools using delayed data, BEx operates within Spreetail's live retail and fulfilment systems, allowing brands to track sales, inventory and advertising performance in real time. The portal provides AI-driven recommendations, SKU-level operational insights, marketplace tracking and custom reporting views. BEx aggregates performance data from Spreetail's Smart Shelf operating system, including tools like Price Pulse, Promise Pro and True Ads. The platform enables brands to monitor optimisations and make strategic decisions based on the same data Spreetail uses internally, creating closer alignment between partners and the company.