Perhaps Foursquare and Gowalla already have this on their roadmaps but it seems to me that they are missing a trick right now in not including a seemingly obvious feature.

When I check-in to an establishment, the establishment should have the option of displaying to me a mini mobile website, to which it publishes content for subscription fee. The site could show me the establishment’s best selling items, special offers and coupons, which by the way I might only get if I sign-up to receiving a newsletter, follow the establishment on Twitter or become its fan on Facebook.

So the idea is to create a cookie-cutter tool for local merchants to create mini websites for their businesses. When a Foursquare or Gowalla user checks into at one of these merchants’ establishments, he or she is directed to the merchant’s mobile website.

In considering this, think not just about bars, cafes and restaurants (the dominant classes of merchant on Foursquare currently) but also of department stores, clothing stores, hotels, one-man corner shops etc. Think about how many times you have walked in and out of a store without buying anything and whether a simple nudge in the form of a special offer or coupon might have made a difference.

Revenue from this could come in two ways that I can think of:

a) Merchants could pay a subscription fee to have one of these mobile mini websites, which they can configure as needed. There could be varied pricing based on features enabled.

b) Each website could include ads from other nearby establishments, charged for on a pay per click basis. Revenue from this could be shared with the establishment generating the click. A website owner would be able to opt in or out of displaying these ads of course.

So there it is. It just seems to me that most of the thinking on Location Based Services (LBS) today focuses on advertising – how to use LBS to enable merchants to attract people to their stores; and not enough on how to actually get visitors to spend money once they are in there or at least enrich their experience so that they return in the future.