The luck part is the timing. As a product there’s nothing about Viaweb that was particularly exotic even for the time.
For comparison, Amazon was founded the year before. eBay was also founded in 1995.
Enabling businesses to sell stuff online as an alternative to phone or fax orders was probably the most obvious commercial application of the World Wide Web.
AFAIK it was the first web application, which by definition makes it unique (since there can only be one "first"). The innovation was that they were selling a store-builder that didn't require the business to have their own servers, not ecommerce.
For comparison, Amazon was founded the year before. eBay was also founded in 1995.
Enabling businesses to sell stuff online as an alternative to phone or fax orders was probably the most obvious commercial application of the World Wide Web.