For the majority of the history of shopping, the way to get goods was to march your way over to the retailer (or in the case of door to door salesmen, have them march their way to you) and to exchange your cash for their goods. This eventually gave way to checks and even credit cards, which is less of a way to directly pay a merchant than to have an intermediate party pay the merchant on your behalf. All of this was turned on its head when stores began selling their merchandise online and you at no point had to have any interaction with human beings.
