Web devs are a tiny proportion of the employees needed for e-commerce.

Without them (and mobile devs, though there’s increasing cross-over), e-commerce doesn’t get done.

Ergo, web devs are directly contributing to the outcomes that e-commerce enables.

Ok, but so is everyone involved with building the fulfillment centre, the sorting machines, the roads for delivery, the trucks, the railways...

If it sounds like I'm including a lot of jobs, it's because every non-service job in the history of the post-industrial revolution economy has revolved around making things more efficient. Software development is not some uniquely evil domain.

I agree. I was just answering the upthread question, which seemed to imply that web devs have no part in it.