Of all the innovation occurring with mobile technology, two areas are of particular significance to small business merchants (a) tools that let small businesses market themselves or their products/services to mobile users such as GoMobi or AppMakr and (b) tools for small businesses to better organize and manage their operations on a mobile (BookFresh, Zoho etc)

So on one hand more consumers are finding and reaching out to merchants via mobile and on the other hand merchants are managing these interactions entirely on mobile. Even though these services address discrete needs, the end result is that the entire paradigm of interaction between a merchant and his customer is changing to be an entirely mobile experience - or mobile-to-mobile.

Why is this important?

This paradigm shift may not be overnight, or widespread, but it is significant because it is likely to drive changes in how end-to-end mobile solutions are delivered.

• Features - phone-based features can allow new value-propositions. Some are already in place. Using FourSquare, a restaurant owner can be alerted when a customer checks in, and send them a coupon directly to their phone.
• Simplicity - merchant and customer-facing apps need to be 3-clicks-simple and action-oriented. E.g. Send a coupon, confirm an appointment etc
• Reinvention of business operations - using services like Square or you can already scan products, charge credit cards and email receipts all from a mobile device, essentially redefining the notion of Point of Sale (POS) - so no checkout counters, no printed receipts. Using Bump technology, the transaction can be further simplified down to a just a bumping of phones. Soon, coordinating a appointment with your hair-stylist can be this simple and entirely mobile to mobile.

So, what does this mean for full (non-mobile) online experiences? Are they now suddenly irrelevant?

It seems unlikely that all online experiences will be mobile experiences, since there still exists a clear delineation between tasks that require a "full-online" experiences and those that can be done for convenience on a mobile device. For example, you wouldn't use a mobile device to write a multi-page document. Or review your general ledger.

But for a lot of functions that involve interaction between merchant and customer, this is the new frontier for innovation especially in new capabilities involving pictures, video, geo-location and social connections. Expect big things.

Image by Flickr user tomsun (Creative Commons)