The B2BEST Barometer from ECC KÖLN, synaigy and Intershop of 17 September 2026 shows: 39 per cent of the 200 wholesalers and manufacturers surveyed spend more than 40 per cent of their selling time on administrative tasks. At the same time, 74 per cent consider the risk of losing a customer to be high if an enquiry is not answered the same day.
“If four out of ten sales teams spend half their week in forms, that is not a diligence problem. It is a process problem, and it costs deals that could have closed the same day.”
On 21 September 2026 the Eurosystem launched Pontes: it allows transactions in tokenised securities to be settled in central bank money. Thirteen market participants, four DLT operators and the Bundesbank are connected, with full rollout planned for 2028. It has nothing to do with the digital euro for consumers.
“Pontes is infrastructure for banks, not for tills. Anyone who is sold this news as the launch of the digital euro should also recalculate the terms offered by the same person.”
On 21 September 2026 the ifo Institute published a special analysis of its business survey: 50 per cent of companies name bureaucracy as the biggest problem of Germany as a business location, energy costs 27 and labour costs 22 per cent. In retail, weak demand leads with 25 per cent — more than in any other sector.
“In retail, bureaucracy is not a mood, it is a calendar. Anyone who knows the three deadlines of the next fifteen months has halved the effort before it arises.”
On 18 September 2026 the ECB published its Consumer Expectations Survey for August. Consumers in the euro area expect nominal spending to be 3.6 per cent higher over the next twelve months, but income only 1.0 per cent higher. One-year-ahead inflation expectations rise to 3.0 per cent.
“Consumers expect higher spending on the same income. At the till that does not mean more revenue, it means more small purchases — and every transaction costs the merchant the same.”
Oktoberfest has been running since 19 September 2026. An analysis of Visa’s own transaction data from 15 September 2026 shows spending in Munich around 30 per cent higher during the 2025 Wiesn than on ordinary summer days, and almost 70 per cent higher on peak days. The number of guests paying digitally each day doubled, and card spend per payment rose by 11 per cent.
“On peak days it is not the price per transaction that decides, but whether the terminal has a signal. A card outage in the evening peak costs more than a whole year of fees.”
On 16 September 2026 the European Payments Initiative announced the first in-store use of Wero, in Belgium: a QR code on a terminal from the payment service provider Payworld, paid straight from the bank account. For Germany, EPI puts broad availability at the point of sale no earlier than 2027 — with ten million registered users in the country by now.
“A QR code on a Belgian terminal is not yet a POS rollout. Nothing changes at the German till in 2026 — but anyone signing a five-year terminal contract now is already deciding about 2027.”
PayPal has launched its PayPal+ loyalty programme in Germany; trade media reported on it on 17 September 2026. One point per five euros of purchase value, 1,000 points are worth ten euros, and in-store points only come with the PayPal Card or Ratenzahlung To Go. For merchants this is not a discount campaign, it is steering of payment method choice.
“A loyalty programme is not a gift to the customer, it is steering of payment method choice. Anyone who attaches points to the most expensive payment method at checkout shifts costs into the merchant’s margin.”
A YouGov survey of 14 September 2026 with more than 3,600 respondents shows that 72 per cent think it must be possible to pay cashlessly in a restaurant, up from 67 per cent the year before. The figures rose in every situation surveyed, most strongly for kiosks, ice cream parlours and snack bars.
“The customer no longer debates card payment, they take it for granted. If it is missing, the business does not lose the argument, it loses the sale.”
On 17 September 2026 Vertriebszeitung published an expert article by Cassandra Schlangen on handling objections. Her core argument: anyone who answers every objection with the counter-argument they were trained on is running an objection lottery. Her proposal is a fixed sequence — observe, form a hypothesis, ask, verify, classify.
“An objection is not a disruption of the conversation, it is the only free piece of information the customer gives up voluntarily. Anyone who immediately argues back throws it away.”
On 16 September 2026 the European Parliament gave final approval to the reform of the Union Customs Code. From 1 November 2026 at the latest, member states will levy a handling fee on every parcel sent directly from a non-EU web shop to EU consumers. Platforms will themselves count as importers, and repeated breaches carry fines of at least 1 and up to 6 per cent of the import value.
“The price advantage from the Far East was never just a product price, it was a rules advantage. Brussels is now collecting on it, and German online merchants get a level starting line for the first time in years.”
On 16 September 2026, the Handelsverband Deutschland (German Retail Federation) rejected the planned statutory obligation to accept digital means of payment. Its reasoning: according to the association, 99 per cent of retail checkouts have long accepted both anyway. If the obligation comes after all, the HDE demands the right to pass card fees on to customers.
“Retail is not arguing about the card, it is arguing about the price of the card. Anyone who mandates acceptance without also regulating the cost per payment is merely moving the bill somewhere else.”
On 16 September 2026 the law firm Annerton opened up the regulatory question behind agentic payments: what counts is not the product label but the actual activity. If an agent accesses the account and initiates a transfer, that can be a payment initiation service requiring a licence.
“The first question to ask any provider of a paying agent is not how good its model is, but whether it holds a licence. Anyone who dodges that is not a partner.”
An analysis by PYMNTS Intelligence published on 16 September 2026 puts a number on what a gap in the checkout costs: 21 per cent of US consumers have abandoned a basket because their preferred payment method was missing. 47 per cent of them wanted to use a wallet.
“The most expensive payment method is the one you do not offer. It appears on no statement, because the customer closes the basket before that.”
On 16 September 2026 IT-Finanzmagazin published a commentary in favour of the planned mandatory card acceptance and accused merchants of not opening up the full bill when they use the cost argument. The text supplies no evidence. The hard figures are elsewhere: 55 per cent cashless purchases according to the Bundesbank, 1.397 million active girocard terminals.
“Anyone accusing merchants of talking their terminal costs down should do the maths themselves. The cost of a card payment is no secret, it is there on the statement.”
An expert article in IT-Finanzmagazin dated 15 September 2026 is a reminder that the German obligation to issue e-invoices in B2B takes effect on 1 January 2027. It applies to companies with more than 800,000 euros of prior-year turnover; from 1 January 2028 it applies to everyone. The legal basis is the Wachstumschancengesetz (German growth opportunities act), the format benchmark is the European standard EN 16931.
“The obligation to receive has applied since the start of 2025 and has bothered almost nobody, because an unprocessed XML file hurts no one. From January 2027 it is your own invoice that is affected — and with it your own incoming payments.”
On 15 September 2026 the Eurosystem published a call for e-commerce and m-commerce merchants in the euro area to apply for the digital euro pilot. The pilot starts in the second half of 2027 and runs for twelve months. Applications close on 27 October 2026 at 17:00 CET; participation is voluntary and unpaid.
“The payment journey is defined in the pilot, not in Brussels. Anyone not taking notes now will be handed a finished integration in 2029 — and will get to pay for it.”
In an objection letter to the competent US federal court, 978 signatories are calling for the proposed settlement in the credit card fee case to be rejected. The core criticism: interchange falls by only one tenth of a percentage point. For European merchants the case is instructive, because here this very item has been capped since 2015 — and costs are rising anyway.
“In Europe the interchange fee has been capped by regulation since 2015, and card costs are rising nonetheless. Anyone who only looks at interchange has never read half the bill.”
On 13 September 2026 the Europaverband der Selbständigen rejected the federal finance ministry’s key points for an obligation to offer a digital payment option. Its main argument: according to the Bundesbank study on payment behaviour, 55 per cent of recorded purchases were already paid cashlessly in 2025 — the market is managing the shift by itself.
“The association is right about its figure and draws the wrong conclusion from it. If 55 per cent already pay cashlessly, the obligation costs hardly anyone anything — except those businesses that have never done the maths at all.”
A specialist article in Vertriebszeitung on 14 September 2026 describes what system selling in technical sales actually founders on: not the technology, but unresolved roles in the buying centre and projects one would have been better off not accepting. The author names the selection of target customers, the core team and the follow-up review as the three levers.
“Anyone selling a system while talking only to the engineer has an advocate, not an order. The signature comes out of a room you have never set foot in.”
On 14 September 2026 the French payment service provider Worldline launched a payment handler for the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard for agentic commerce originating around Google. Merchants on the Global Collect platform are to be able to accept purchases triggered by an AI on the customer's behalf — cards, mobile wallets and European schemes included.
“Connecting up is the easy part of this story. The open question remains who is liable when an agent buys the wrong thing — and as long as nobody answers it, any protocol is just a pipe.”
According to its own statement of 9 September 2026, the Polish payment scheme BLIK has processed the first pilot payment made by an AI agent: 19.99 zloty for a hand cream in the Your KAYA shop, triggered by the agent and processed via PayU. The customer granted permission in advance with a six-digit BLIK code and an approval in their banking app.
“The real news is not that an agent can pay, but where the permission for it sits: in the customer's banking app, not with the merchant and not with the agent platform.”
On 8 September 2026 BNP Paribas presented the launch of Wero for Merchants in Paris. The bank enables its merchant customers to accept Wero in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg; Air France, Decathlon, Fnac Darty and Orange are named as the first large merchants. Fnac Darty plans to start in early 2027.
“For merchants, what counts about Wero is not the European idea but the arithmetic: a checkout without card data, one integration for five markets and fees that still have to prove themselves.”
ECB rate decision of 10 September 2026: all three key rates rise by 25 basis points, with the deposit facility at 2.50 per cent from 16 September. The projections see inflation at 3.0 per cent in 2026, 2.5 per cent in 2027 and 2.1 per cent in 2028. For merchants that is two calculations: more expensive financing and an average basket size that keeps falling in real terms.
“Monetary policy matters to a merchant in exactly two places: what financing the till costs, and what the customer still puts in the basket. Right now both point the same way, and both can be worked out in an afternoon.”
Mandatory card acceptance 2027: Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil has presented key points for an obligation to offer a digital payment option, as reported by dpa on 11 September 2026. Shops, hospitality businesses and service providers would have to offer at least one digital method alongside cash, including at least one European method. Minimum amounts and small-ticket surcharges would be prohibited.
“The decisive half-sentence is not in the obligation itself but in the choice: at least one European method. Anyone who today only has Visa and Mastercard at the terminal does not meet that requirement — and that affects more businesses than retail currently cares to admit.”
On 9 September 2026 Mastercard presented Agent Connect, a shared connection for merchants, AI agents, platforms and payment service providers, and reworked the Agent Suite for merchants introduced in January. Also new: Mastercard is passing Anthropic’s commerce agent blueprint on to merchants. The message to retail is: one integration, not one per assistant.
“Retailers should not have to connect to twenty assistants one by one — that is the right promise. Only it is not the interface that decides the revenue, but who ends up carrying the chargeback when the agent buys the wrong thing.”
d-you is the name of the German EUDI Wallet: the federal digital ministry announced it on 9 September 2026, the launch date is 2 January 2027, and use is voluntary and free of charge. Around 40 partners are bringing their own applications, with age verification, legally binding contracts and banking named explicitly. The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe is a launch partner with ten applications.
“For merchants, d-you is not an administrative matter but a checkout function. Anyone who has to verify age, address or authority to sign online will be able to do it in one step from 2027 instead of five — and that decides abandonment rates, not citizen friendliness.”
On 9 September 2026 Ant International, Mastercard and Visa announced a collaboration on a shared Know Your Agent framework. An AI agent that has identified itself to one provider should not have to repeat that with the others. According to the reporting, precisely the points that hit merchants remain unresolved: liability, revocation and dispute handling.
“An ID card for shopping agents is half the job. The other half is: who pays when the agent buys the wrong thing — and as long as nobody answers that, the risk sits with the merchant.”
On 10 September 2026 Vertriebszeitung described why trade fair appearances do not fail at the stand but in the appointment planning eight weeks before. That leaves just under seven weeks for the ibi Zahlungsverkehrsforum on 28 and 29 October 2026 in Frankfurt; for EuroCIS from 16 to 18 February 2027, preparation starts around the turn of the year.
“Without appointments arranged in advance, a trade fair does not buy you leads, it buys you attendance. The stand costs the money; the eight weeks before it decide whether it pays off.”
In-store foodservice 2026: the EHI study of 9 September 2026 reports turnover of 13.29 billion euros for 2025, 7.1 per cent more than in 2024 and three percentage points above the sector’s own forecast. The biggest expected growth driver is the to-go and snack business — precisely the segment with the smallest tickets.
“Growth in the snack business means one thing for the till: more transactions at a smaller ticket size. Anyone billing by percentage instead of per transaction is paying out their own success to the payment service provider.”
Wero at the point of sale: on 8 September 2026 the European Payments Initiative admitted the French payment service provider HiPay as a principal member. HiPay wants to roll out Wero via existing till systems, card terminals and Tap to Pay, starting in France. In Germany, Wero is so far only available in e-commerce.
“Wero will not be decided in marketing, it will be decided at the till. As long as no acquirer says which terminal it runs on in Germany, it is an announcement for the merchant, not a payment method.”
On 8 September 2026 Mastercard published the report A Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments. The forecast: by 2030 more than one in ten online shoppers will regularly have an AI agent do the buying, over 300 million people worldwide. The concrete demand on merchants is unspectacular and still the real news: product information, advertising claims and policies have to become machine-readable and verifiable.
“The agent does not read glossy images. If product data, prices and return rules are not machine-readable, the merchant simply does not exist for it — that is not a topic for the future but a master data task for this quarter.”
An IDnow study published on 8 September 2026 shows: 52 per cent of Germans know the European identity wallet, 48 per cent abandon a process if verification becomes too cumbersome. 64 per cent would be more likely to use the wallet if individual details such as age could be confirmed without the rest of the data.
“For merchants, the identity wallet will not be decided on data protection, it will be decided on abandonment rates. Anyone who cuts an age check from three clicks to one earns money on it immediately.”
On 7 September 2026, Vertriebszeitung described nine typical mistakes in price negotiation. The arithmetic behind them is incorruptible: at a 30 per cent contribution margin, a price reduction of five per cent eats a sixth of the contribution margin — 20 per cent more volume would be needed just to be level again.
“Discount is the most expensive form of convenience in sales. Anyone who gives away five per cent gives away a sixth of their contribution margin at a normal margin, and needs a fifth more closes to make it back.”
On 7 September 2026, Revolut and Visa completed the first card payment in France triggered by an AI: a real Revolut card, a real merchant (Cleverbridge), authentication via Visa Payment Passkey instead of a PIN. The liability question in agent purchases is not answered by this — it has only just been asked.
“When an agent pays, the human disappears from the payment process, but not from the liability chain. Merchants should ask who carries the chargeback case before they let agents into the checkout.”
On 2 September 2026 Anthropic published open blueprints for shopping and merchant agents — without a payment function of its own. Deliberately left out: payment protocol, checkout and advertising layer. Visa, Mastercard, Accenture and Shopify are carrying the building blocks into their customer networks. What that means for merchant checkouts.
“The agent builds the basket, the till stays with the merchant — anyone who understands that now negotiates their checkout contracts differently from someone waiting for the next hype.”
A legal opinion by Thomas Weck, commissioned by Finanzwende Recherche, examines the competition law side of the digital euro for the first time. Result: permissible as a sovereign act, but the planned basic infrastructure is commercial activity.
“For merchants, the digital euro will not be decided by monetary policy but by two lines: what acceptance costs and who operates the infrastructure.”
Card payments in hospitality: a DSGV analysis of 70,364 Google Maps listings shows that 89 per cent of the restaurants that state a payment method accept cards. Around a quarter give no information at all, and in Ludwigshafen one in three venues that does state a method is cash-only.
“A quarter of restaurants list no payment method on Google and thereby give away exactly the information the guest is looking for outside the door.”
More than 200 companies gave Kienbaum information for its 2026 sales study. Transparency and motivation work; on strategic steering most pay systems fail: they pay for short-term revenue while the company has long since been measuring profitability and customer retention.
“Anyone who preaches contribution margin and pays for revenue gets revenue. The compensation model is the most honest statement of strategy a company makes; everything else is presentation.”
The payment service provider secupay now offers Mastercard’s Pay by Bank via Shopware, WooCommerce, JTL and its own API. The customer confirms the transfer in their own online banking, and the merchant receives a payment without the card networks.
“Account-based payment at checkout is not a replacement for the card, it is bargaining power: anyone who has a second rail alongside the card talks about fees from a different position.”
tgPAY: since 1 September 2026 the foodservice wholesaler Transgourmet has been selling its own card acceptance for hospitality, hotels and catering together with VR Payment. The announcement names no terms and conditions, but it does offer a savings calculator.
“When the food wholesaler suddenly sells card acceptance as well, the publican has to compare two prices, not just leaf through a catalogue.”
Mandatory card acceptance in 2026: no, Germany has no law and no draft bill obliging merchants to accept cards. The coalition agreement only states the intention to offer a digital payment option alongside cash. What applies today, which sectors would be affected and what merchants should do regardless.
“Mandatory card acceptance will not arrive by law, it has been here for a long time: 92 per cent of girocard payments are contactless, and anyone who does not take cards loses the customer at the till, not in court.”
The combined payment volume of the two card schemes rose by nine per cent in euro terms in the second quarter of 2026, roughly double the growth of retail. Mastercard is also examining a sale of Vocalink and of the Danish Nets group.
“When card turnover grows twice as fast as retail, it is not consumption that is growing but the share the card schemes earn on every euro of consumption.”
In its current State of Sales study, Salesforce puts the share of non-selling time at 70 per cent: data maintenance, internal coordination, administration. At the same time, around half of German companies report that they cannot fill open sales positions.
“Anyone who wants to grow their sales force by 30 per cent does not need new people, they need to take the administration away from the ones they have.”
The UK Payment Systems Regulator found that the core fees of the card schemes have risen by at least 25 per cent since 2017 and cost merchants an extra 170 million pounds a year. It is now demanding auditable records for every pricing decision. The EU Commission has had its case open since 2024.
“The scheme fee is the only part of the card fee that no law caps and no merchant can negotiate; that is why it has risen by a quarter in ten years while interchange stayed capped.”
The Amsterdam payment service provider reports net revenue of 156 million euros for the first half year, is planning 350 million euros for expansion across Europe and is acquiring direct debit specialist GoCardless for 1.1 billion euros.
“With GoCardless, Mollie is buying direct debit, because in subscription business it is not the card that wins but the bank account; for merchants that means more choice and more negotiating power.”
The Danish payment company relies on reps who ring the doorbell at bakeries and hairdressers. In 2025 revenue grew to 39 million euros on a loss of 70 million euros; for 2026 management is planning 100 to 105 million in revenue and up to 150 million in losses.
“Flatpay proves that personal selling works in payments, and that it costs 140 million euros in losses when the product behind it is just a terminal with a flat rate.”
The European banks' payment solution is live in four countries, more than 120 e-commerce merchants accept it, and in October the migration of the Dutch market leader iDEAL begins. Buyer protection will be phased in through to 2028.
“Wero will not be decided by its advertising budget but by the question of whether it is cheaper than PayPal in the merchant's checkout; the iDEAL migration is the first real test of that.”
4.21 billion payments, 151.9 billion euros in turnover, 1.397 million terminals. Transactions are up four per cent, turnover only 0.8 per cent. For merchants that means more bookings for the same money.
“Four per cent more transactions on 0.8 per cent more turnover means every merchant on a fixed per-transaction fee pays more for the same business today than a year ago.”
After the trilogue agreement of 5 May 2026, formal adoption is expected in the summer or autumn. The PSR regulation will then apply around 21 months after publication, and the PSD3 directive must be transposed within 24 months. What changes for merchants.
“For banks PSD3 is a compliance project, for merchants it is a pricing question: whoever carries the fraud liability determines what the payment costs.”
The trial starts in the second half of 2027, runs for twelve months and tests payments in shops, in online stores and between private individuals. Five German applicants are on the list, among them Payone and Deutsche Bank.
“The digital euro will only matter at the terminal if it is cheaper for the merchant than the girocard; otherwise it stays a project for central banks.”
Net revenue of 1.3 billion euros, processed volume of 804 billion euros, plus the acquisitions of Talon.One and Orb. The Dutch payment service provider is rebuilding itself from acquirer into a commerce platform.
“Adyen no longer sells retailers the payment, it sells the customer relationship around it, and that is exactly where the classic payment network operators have to ask themselves what they offer beyond the terminal.”
The payment service provider is acquiring an AI router that distributes requests across more than 400 language models. The price is 5.4 times the valuation from May. Why a payment company is buying AI infrastructure, and what it means for the checkout.
“Stripe is not buying an AI company, Stripe is buying the till for the moment when it is no longer the human paying but their AI agent.”
Europe's largest terminal manufacturer is converting debt into equity, PIMCO leads the investor group, previous owner Apollo is leaving. What that means for merchants with Ingenico devices at the till.
“When the manufacturer behind the terminal restructures, the merchant does not feel it in the device, but in spare parts, in updates and in the price of the next generation.”