ZIIB activated Wero at the point of sale through its Pay with ME platform in early August 2026. The integration makes ZIIB the first provider to bring the European payment scheme to physical checkout. The QR-based system targets more than 11,000 acceptance points across Germany and Austria. Belgium and France are planned for later in 2026.
The QR-first approach addresses a timing gap in Wero's POS roadmap. EPI originally planned NFC contactless payments at high-frequency retail locations for 2026. That timeline has shifted to 2027. ZIIB's white-label model requires no additional payment hardware beyond an existing display screen. This reduces deployment costs for vending machines, self-service car washes, and parking systems.
Merchant integration is accelerating on the e-commerce side. Decathlon activated Wero on decathlon.de on July 20, 2026. Germany is the first market in Decathlon's international footprint to offer the payment option. The retailer is preparing technical integration across roughly 110 German stores. EPI is co-funding an October activation campaign offering EUR 10 vouchers to customers who pay with Wero at Decathlon. The registered user base has grown to approximately 56 million across Europe.
Update (2026-10-09): The European Payments Initiative published its decision to join nexo standards in a statement datelined Brussels, 8 October 2026. EPI said the membership supports its ambition to make Wero practical for merchants to accept across European markets, thanks to wide support of payment providers and acceptance technologies. nexo standards develops open payment specifications and messaging protocols that enable payment acceptance systems to communicate using a common framework based on ISO 20022.
A demonstration at NRF Europe in Paris in September showed Wero payments supported on payment terminals with a nexo-based acceptance environment. EPI said the in-store payment rollout across markets in 2027 will develop these acceptance cases further and will include NFC integration in the long run.