New commercial breaks

Payments technology is at the centre of e-commerce today. In fact, you could say that it is at the centre of the entire online experience. But what do new developments, from a generational shift away from the telephone to apps and blockchain, mean, asks Jason Walsh.

E-commerce is just commerce goes the cliché. Like all clichés it has an element of truth; perhaps a slight exaggeration, as there is still no shortage of bricks and mortar retail from the lowest end of the budget shops to ultra-high-end boutiques, not to mention plenty of sole traders who don’t operate online. Everyone else, though, needs to be online in order to do business.

But what does being online mean? Just what ...