A year after testing mobile capabilities with its customers, Wow Bao, an Asian restaurant with three Chicago locations, is planning to launch a mobile gift card program with Mocapay Inc. by the end of April.
The system will enable customers to use a website or their phone to load gift card information into any mobile phone, Geoff Alexander, Wow Bao managing partner and a vice president at parent Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc., said.
Consumers opt in by sending a text message to a dedicated number, and Mocapay texts back a message with a bar code. To accept the mobile gift card, checkout workers scan the bar code while the customer is in line at the restaurant. Participants also may give the clerk a one-time-use code from a text message, which the cashier keys in to the terminal to access their prepaid account, he said.
Each restaurant has one to three scanners, Alexander said.
Wow Bao has been working with Mocapay, of Denver, since May to develop mobile "comp" cards, in which the restaurant gives a complimentary amount of funds to spend at the restaurant, and mobile coupons. Wow Bao has begun preparing its marketing plan for the Mocapay mobile gift card system rollout to its customers.
Later this year, the company plans to expand the program to Lettuce Entertain You's more than 65 restaurants in eight states, Alexander said.
Lettuce Entertain You already has a 25-year-old frequent-diner program with nearly 135,000 members, and the company likely will approach them with the mobile gift card offering, Alexander said.
