Conversation with… David Gebhardt, Head of Enterprise – Merchant Services at Worldline
Here we chart David Gebhardt’s journey through two decades in payments and explore how Worldline’s One Commerce platform is designed to simplify complexity and unlock value for merchants across every channel.
Can you tell us about your background in payments?
I started in the payments industry in 2001, working with POS terminals at Ingenico when the company was still almost a start-up. Over the years, the organisation grew massively across regions and markets, and I grew with it.
At the beginning, I knew very little about payments. I was young, learning fast, and moving through different roles until eventually I was managing large parts of the EMEA region, covering Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Back then, it was very much about POS terminals, but I was never interested in simply selling boxes.
What do you mean by that?
From early on, what made us successful was our focus on services, not hardware only. We rolled out services around the POS terminal – payments, yes, but also things like prepaid mobile top-ups, which weren’t common everywhere at the time. The terminal was just an enabler.
That mindset set us apart from competitors. We weren’t selling technology for technology’s sake; we were helping merchants create more value.
How did that evolve as your career progressed?
I left Ingenico and later returned as CEO for France. By then, the company had grown from around 300 people to 5,000 in just over a decade. That role really changed my perspective. Instead of selling to acquirers or banks, I was now also directly serving merchants.
France was the first country where we delivered a true end-to-end merchant acceptance experience. That’s where I became obsessed, in a good way, with delivering best-in-class service. It wasn’t easy. Infrastructure and development capabilities were nowhere near what they are today, but we pushed hard.
We also started introducing value-added services beyond payments. For example, donation functionality at the point of sale. That wasn’t common then, but it showed how payments infrastructure could do much more.
It sounds like merchants became your main focus.
Exactly, that was a big shift for me. Moving away from understanding banks and acquirers, and instead truly understanding merchants: what they need, what they struggle with, and how payments can help them grow.
Later, as ecommerce accelerated around 2012 to 2013, it became clear we couldn’t do everything organically. We made acquisitions to build online and ecommerce capabilities, and I went on to manage several of those businesses. That’s when my obsession with authorisation and acceptance rates really took hold.
Why are acceptance rates so critical for retailers?
Because every declined transaction is lost revenue. If a merchant processes billions in turnover and you improve acceptance rates by just 2% to 4%, the value you unlock is enormous.
This completely changes the relationship between payment provider and merchant. It becomes a partnership. You’re fighting together to maximise conversion. Ensuring customers can pay with whatever method they choose, and that the payment goes through smoothly.
How has that philosophy carried into your more recent roles?
After Ingenico, I joined Barclays in the UK as Managing Director, working closely with issuing and acquiring data to improve outcomes for merchants, whether they were selling fridges or fashion.
Across every role, the mindset has been the same: focus on what you can add on top of basic payments to genuinely support merchants.
How would you describe the current retail and payments landscape?
Growth is no longer explosive. We’re not seeing 20% to 50% year-on-year growth anymore – even 10% would now be considered best-in-class in many cases.
Across Europe, the ecosystem is under pressure. Some markets, like Switzerland, are seeing both transaction volumes and values decline. The UK is slightly more resilient, but still only seeing low single-digit growth, especially in grocery. Fashion, in particular, is struggling.
COVID, inflation, Brexit – all of these have fundamentally changed consumer behaviour. There’s uncertainty about the future, and when people are unsure, they hold on to their money.
What does that mean for retailers over the next year?
Retail has always been challenging, but today the pressure is higher. In this environment, payments can’t just function, they must perform.
Retailers need partners who understand their reality and help them optimise conversion, reduce friction, and extract more value from every transaction. That’s where our focus is – and why I’m so excited about what we’re building at Worldline.
Turning to your Worldline journey, you’ve spoken about a new approach for 2026, with a stronger local and European market focus. Can you tell us more about that?
I’ve only been at Worldline a few months, so this isn’t about claiming long-term ownership, it’s about momentum.
When you join a new organisation, the most important thing is building the right team. Transformation doesn’t come from replacing people; it comes from identifying the strongest talent already in the business and bringing them along on the journey.
That’s been a big focus for me so far. We have a strong management team around the table, and just as importantly, a shared understanding of what needs to change.
What does the future of payments look like in an AI-driven world?
The real opportunity is how AI is transforming payments, both for merchants and consumers.
From a product and offer perspective, AI can optimise pricing, personalise checkout experiences, streamline payment flows and augment operational excellence. From a merchant and consumer perspective, tools like Google and AI agents will soon be able to shop on your behalf, while ChatGPT and other AI platforms are already testing agentic commerce, thereby making transactions smarter, faster, and more seamless.
What other trends do retailers factor need to factor into their strategies?
From what we’re seeing on our platform, consumers are buying more frequently but spending less per transaction these days. That’s a key trend retailers need to factor in.
That brings us neatly to One Commerce. Why is it more important than ever?
One Commerce is critical because, historically, Worldline’s breadth of assets, including Ingenico and other acquisitions, made the offering incredibly powerful on paper, but not always easy for merchants to access.
From a merchant perspective, navigating commercial relationships, technical integrations, and different platforms could be complex. The same was true internally for sales teams.
The idea behind One Commerce is simple: payments are complex; not just because of regional differences, but also the gap between physical and digital channels. We simplify it all for merchants with one contract, one experience, one SLA, and one portal.
It provides merchants with one unified experience and easy access to all the services we can offer, across in-store, online, and beyond, through a single connection.
How does that translate in practice?
The foundation of One Commerce is knowing our assets and grouping them intelligently. From there, we build value propositions based on verticals.
A retailer doesn’t need the same services as an EV charging operator. In the past, the approach was often “a bit of everything for everybody.” That doesn’t work anymore.
Now, One Commerce acts as an umbrella. Under that, we create dedicated offers for specific sectors, including fashion, lifestyle, grocery, EV charging, and more. Each package is designed around the real needs of that industry.
Why is that vertical focus so important?
Because we genuinely understand these businesses. Many of our people come directly from retail, from brands like Inditex, IKEA, and H&M. They know how merchants operate, what pressures they face, and what really adds value.
As we move through 2026, each vertical will have its own clearly defined value proposition, aligned to its specific challenges and growth opportunities.
That’s how we move from being a payments provider to being a true partner.
Looking ahead, what are the plans for One Commerce over the next year?
We have a lot coming. Firstly, One Commerce is not fully live yet, the UK has been the starting point.
We’ve already completed a full mapping of our assets, so we know exactly what we can deliver to merchants. That’s the first critical step. And I genuinely believe what we’re bringing to market will be very different from what competitors can offer.
Worldline has a long history and that’s both a challenge and a huge advantage. Across Europe, we have some of the deepest roots in payments: Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK. Ingenico, for example, was one of the very first POS terminal providers. Many people who built those foundations are still with us today.
That legacy has created complexity, but it has also created something no-one else can replicate. And now, with today’s technology, we finally have the ability to converge those capabilities.
When will merchants start to see this in practice?
One Commerce has launched in the UK earlier this year. The UK is our pilot market, from which we will roll out across Europe. The ambition is consistency. Whether you’re a retailer in the UK, France, Germany, Nordics, Eastern and, Southern Europe, you’ll see the same core value proposition, adapted locally but aligned under One Commerce.
Your leadership style clearly resonates with your teams.
I try. We work as a management team, not as individuals. Over the years, living and working in the UK and the Netherlands has shaped my approach. It’s less about hierarchy and more about shared mission.
We’re on a journey together. Let’s do the work, let’s do it well, and let’s enjoy it. If people aren’t crying at the end of the day, that’s already a good sign.
What’s the one thing retailers should really understand about Worldline?
We are obsessed with understanding merchants.
Retail is difficult. Technology is difficult. What merchants want isn’t flashy innovation for its own sake; they want things to work. Reliability, robustness, and solutions that fit their reality today.
Yes, we test new ideas, like mobile-based soft POS and future payment models, but always with a practical mindset: Does it work? Does it add value?
That’s where our strength lies: combining scale, experience, and stability with thoughtful innovation.
And finally, when you’re not thinking about payments, where will we find you?
Honestly, my biggest challenge is that I love my work; it’s my hobby. But I’ve learned, especially over the last couple of years, to protect weekends and spend time with my family.
Outside of work, I’m a passionate kitesurfer. If there’s wind in the Netherlands, you’ll probably find me on the water – cold, rain, sunshine, it doesn’t matter. And maybe that sums me up quite well.
