ShortStop, a Conoco-Phillips-branded convenience store, has expanded its current mobile gift program to include mobile marketing company Mocapay's mobile loyalty services after a successful three-month trial.

ShortStop expects to launch their mobile loyalty program in the second quarter of this year in conjunction with Mocapay and Smart Transaction Systems. ShortStop mobile gift account holders can transact at the point-of-sale, access their account balance and transaction history, find the nearest location and reload their gift/convenience account, all from their mobile phone.

"ShortStop participated in our Boulder alpha pilot in late 2007 and saw the great potential in using mobile phones as a payment mechanism," said Kevin Grieve, CEO of Mocapay, Boulder, CO. "Like most merchants, ShortStop was focused on leveraging and promoting their brand, and believed that mobilizing their gift program, and subsequently, their loyalty program through Mocapay would continue to create brand awareness.

"The joint strategy is to provide consumers with choice and convenience relative to payments and continue to build the ShortStop gift card through Mocapay's mobile capabilities," he said.

"Prior to the 90-day trial, we conducted a survey of ShortStop customers and found that 85 percent would be interested in paying with their mobile phone, which gives the mobile gift, loyalty and marketing solution from Mocapay a vast target demographic."

One of ShortStop's biggest challenges is driving more consumers into their convenience stores to increase non-gas sales.

"Mocapay will help address this issue through the mobile loyalty and marketing program, by opening a two-way mobile communication channel with ShortStop's most frequent customers," Mr. Grieve said.

Mocapay currently has WAP and SMS services, so its mobile initiatives can work with most handsets. In addition, Mocapay is compatible with all U.S. carriers, excluding Cricket.

Smart Transaction Systems is the back-end gift card processor for ShortStop and the database of record for all of its gift and loyalty accounts.

Mocapay and STS have integrated their two systems to deliver a seamless consumer experience at the point-of-sale, Mr. Grieve said.

Relative to their existing plastic gift card program, ShortStop reported mid-single-digit consumer adoption rates of mobile gift, high-single-digit mobile transaction volumes and low-double-digit mobile gift load amounts.

By partnering with Mocapay, ShortStop claims that it has been able to broaden the market appeal of its gift card program towards its consumer segment, in addition to its already successful business-to-business channel.

Part of the program's success is attributed to the minimal operational impact of Mocapay.

To highlight the simplicity of the consumer experience, Mocapay and ShortStop collaborated on a video, which shows the end-to-end mobile gift redemption process at ShortStop's point-of-sale.

Founded in 1998, Smart Transaction Systems provides card-based payment systems, customer loyalty and customer relationship management -- or CRM -- programs to a wide variety of companies.

STS provides gift card and loyalty programs to more than 4,500 retail clients across the United States.

Smart Transaction Systems has selected Hypercom's Mobile Network service to extend the reach of its gift and loyalty card programs to mobile (see story).

Mocapay provides a mobile commerce platform that supports integrated mobile payments, marketing and distribution at point-of-sale.

Mocapay allows issuers of gift, loyalty and private-label credit card programs a way to open a new channel of communication with their customers via mobile.

Mocapay offers direct marketing opportunities and customer loyalty to merchants while providing consumers with the ability to transact with their mobile device and to receive real-time promotions from retailers.

ShortStop is a four-location chain of convenience stores in Boulder, CO, and is a distributor of Conoco-Phillips gasoline.

ShortStop has served the Boulder community for more than 50 years.

The mobile gift card program only includes gift card payments.

As with most merchants, ShortStop's loyalty program will be payment-tender agnostic, meaning customers are able to accrue and redeem loyalty points regardless of how they pay at ShortStop.

ShortStop intends to reward its most loyal customers based on both fuel and in-store purchases.

The back-end loyalty program will be setup through STS and Mocapay will provide the mobile capabilities as an additional layer.

"Going forward, consumers will never forget their loyalty gift and/or loyalty cards, since they will always be residents on their mobile phone," Mr. Grieve said.