The lines that separate producers and consumers are being blurred as a result of technology and the Internet, giving rise to the age of the prosumer.
So said Johan Nel, CEO of Gumtree, speaking at the ITWeb Digital Economy Summit 2015 at The Forum in Bryanston yesterday.
Nel defines a prosumer as anyone who becomes involved in the design, manufacture and supply of products and services.
The idea dates back to 1980 when Alvin Toffler, a futurologist, coined the term prosumer, contracting two words - producer and consumer, to describe the emerging type of proactive consumers.
Nel pointed out the Web has entered a new, participatory and social phase, dubbed the third wave of the net, where consumers are the producers of the Web and the not-so-silent partners of the e-commerce world.
He explains the first wave was about the consumption of information by consumers from the Internet without participating in content creation, and the second wave was about social media.
To Nel, the world is no longer facing a market where industries can just dump consumer goods - customers are becoming part of the creative process.
"We are living in an era of connectivity, various communication platforms and decentralised retail and all these factors are contributing to fulfil the connective commerce."
It's the age of mass customisation - the middleman between maker and buyer is being cut out, customers are no longer only consumers; they are increasingly becoming producers, said Nel.
According to Nel, examples of the prosumers are TaskRabbit, an online and mobile marketplace that allows users to outsource small jobs and tasks to others in their neighbourhood, and also the French platform Zilok, which empowers individuals and businesses to rent their belongings to other people.
Because of the disruptive effect of the prosumer trend, traditional retailers need to start rethinking their business models - embracing the mind-set of the market disruptors, said Nel.
"Businesses should explore ways of partnering with the platforms that provide the venue for these entrepreneurs to flourish - not only tap into potential new sources of revenue, but to explore ways and means of creating a new business model flexible enough to adapt to the rapid adoption of the prosumer trend."
The world hasn't changed, but the individuals and businesses that navigate through it definitely have; to remain competitive they need to embrace digital self-service and create solutions that tightly integrate work and personal life, concludes Nel.
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