Ecommerce, Emergence and E O Wilson
Ecommerce is not really ONE thing. Ecommerce is a group of three interlinked forces:

* Fast Feedback loops speeding up survival of fittest.
* Collective consciousness of The Hive (emergence).

* Meme creation in the social layer (the bee's dance)

The difference between Internet marketing teams who win big in ecommerce and those who come in second (and so win the steak knives) is a tiny seam between how these three legs dance together toward infinity.