The PAYTECH Book

From Barter to App – How Payments Have Changed

By Markus Eichinger

Executive Vice President Group Strategy, Wirecard

The way people pay has changed enormously over the millennia – and continues to do so. Payment methods hugely influence economic, trade and purchasing behaviour. A payment can be the decisive factor behind customer satisfaction, tapping into new target groups or a retailer’s success. One click and the purchase is complete. Above all, e-commerce merchants know how crucial it is to ensure that checkout processes are kept as simple and barrier-free as possible.

It is only in this way that their conversion rates can be increased over the long term and offer positive customer experiences – perhaps by ensuring that customers are no longer even aware of the payment, as their credit card data has already been stored in the background and the transaction is automatically processed, like in the case of Uber.

The Early Days of Payment: From Cowry Shells to Coin Counterfeiters

In order to understand the rapid developments in the field of payment, let’s take a little look back through the ages.

While bartering has existed ever since human beings were capable of rational thought, the concept of “commodity money” came into being around 8,000 years ago. This included countable, rare objects such as cowry shells that could be transported and stored with ease. Commodity money laid the foundations of modern trade and facilitated the division of labour.

Trade was simpler and more ...