A growing installed base of smartphones is building upon an existing critical mass of more basic mobile devices to open up new opportunities in mobile commerce for SMBs and channel partners alike.

“Mobile commerce” refers to the ability to conduct business through mobile devices, including basic cell phones, PDAs, and smartphones. This communications mode is big and getting bigger, according to comScore, a Reston, Va.-based provider of digital business analytics. In fact, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices during the three months ending October 2010. Some 60.7 million—more than 25 percent—of them owned a smartphone, a figure comScore says reflects a 14 percent increase over the previous three-month period.

Major retail, hospitality, travel, and entertainment companies are keeping pace. They are becoming increasingly active in setting up specialized Web sites and applications that make mobile a virtual marketplace, enabling smartphone-using consumers to directly connect with them to initiate and complete transactions.

Small and midsize businesses, meanwhile, can start realizing the benefits of mobile commerce by using simple SMS (short message service) text messaging as a marketing medium, according to David Eads, CEO of Mobile Strategy Partners LLC, an Atlanta-based marketing firm that specializes in mobile commerce, banking, and payments.

“One model of where this is working now is the restaurant industry, where restaurateurs are using SMS very cost-effectively to target users,” Eads says. With these applications, diners are offered the opportunity to sign up to receive text-message communications regarding specials, discounts, promotions, and other items of interest.

The effectiveness of SMS communication “is tremendous, and not terribly expensive,” says Eads. “You are establishing direct contact with people [who] have opted-in and have already indicated that they are interested in receiving information about your business.” SMS-based communication enables a business to engage customers in a very personal fashion, he notes. As a result, “The response rate for a marketing campaign based on mobile/SMS is typically around 5 percent, whereas for an email campaign or an online banner ad click-through campaign, it might be one-half of 1 percent.”

An SMS-based campaign is easy to crank up, says Eads, because most SMBs have some kind of existing relationship with a digital agency, or public relations or marketing firm that provides technical advice. “You can reduce some of your advertising and promotions in other channels, such as print, add mobile to the mix, and get started very effectively,” he says.

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SMBs are increasingly interested in setting up mobile-optimized Web sites that allow interaction and transactions with the growing numbers of smartphone-enabled customers, reports Laurie McCabe, partner at SMB Group Inc., a market research and consulting firm focusing on technology solutions.

At least for the time being, she says, “The bigger the business, the more likely they are to have a mobile Web site.” In addition to providing a source of standard company information, businesses are enabling these sites to handle all manner of customer transactions, including buying goods and services, making appointments and reservations, “and even providing mobile coupons, so when someone arrives at their store or on their Web site, they can redeem that coupon.”

Getting your SMB customers mobile-enabled in this fashion can also give them a competitive edge by improving the way they run their businesses. For example, a mobile-enabled HVAC company with smartphone-equipped field personnel can service customers, automatically check parts inventories, and generate invoices “all on the fly,” McCabe notes.

The growth of SMB interest in mobile commerce is opening up what McCabe calls “huge opportunities for Web designers and traditional channel people [who] have experience with Web site design and setup. Mobile is like a tsunami, and businesses that don’t get up to speed on it are missing a lot of opportunities to become more competitive, and they will automatically lose customers to those that are.”