The Future of POS is Open Platform and Integration

While attending the NRA (National Restaurant Association) Show in Chicago last week it became crystal clear what restaurants want: integration in the technology they adopt. Our booth was centrally located in the technology pavillion of the show where bulky legacy point of sale systems were replaced with sleek sophisticated tablet-based POS solutions. These cutting edge cloud-based systems and mobile applications were neighbors during the four day show and it got attendees to wonder: can they have the best of all worlds in one system for their restaurant? Thankfully, for restaurateurs and merchants, the future for integration is looking bright. GoPago is deliberately moving to an open platform. At the prestigious Google i/o Conference earlier this month, it was announced that we have integrated with Google Wallet. The Google Wallet Instant Buy API is available on the GoPago app on Android devices, so now GoPago LIVE can accept Google Wallet payments alongside mobile orders and payments. Through our own SDK (software development kit) we will be providing API libraries and developer tools to build, test and debug apps for GoPago LIVE. Through opening our platform, we get to extend the value for our merchants with the best industry apps developed by domain experts. With this openness, a sit down restaurant may want to use their favorite reservation app and have it integrated on their smart POS system, GoPago LIVE. We are very aware of the highly competitive nature in the industries that we occupy, but we do believe that the winners will be those who work together and don’t position themselves as an all or nothing solution. During the conference,...

mPOS: Our Latest Disruptive Device For QSRs

We will unveil our mPOS solution as the latest addition to our commerce in the cloud product suite at the National Restaurant Association (NRA) show. The mPOS has all the power of GoPago LIVE’s tablet POS on a smartphone that enables line busting by pushing point of sale to the edge of brick and mortar restaurants. “Traditional costs for mPOS solutions are over a thousand dollars and with technology changing so fast, hardware is obsolete in a year; hefty monthly maintenance costs have those solutions a non-starter,” said GoPago Founder and CEO Leo Rocco. “For a little over $1 a day (all in), a QSR can enable their employees with a smartphone to streamline the order taking and payment process. QSRs no longer have to run to the kitchen to communicate what they just wrote down on paper or be limited to a central POS station to accept payments. GoPago LIVE mPOS allows restaurants to turn tables over faster and provide responsive customer service.” Our new mPOS will debut on the Nexus 4 with a card reader, rugged case and with our POS software already loaded for $49 a month. The mPOS offers flexible connectivity for merchants via WiFi with the option to upgrade to a 4G data plan. “Green” flexibility is offered when customers can choose to have their receipts texted or emailed and for merchants who desire, printed wirelessly via Bluetooth. QSRs can especially benefit from this solution because the mPOS connects to a merchant’s personal commerce cloud with robust reporting across terminals and locations accessible on any device at any time. This POS on a smartphone...

Melty March Madness with Blue Fog Market

Blue Fog Market on Polk St. recently started serving up some cheese melts until 3 in the morning and we’re teaming up with them and their Gough St. location to bring you the Melty March Madness bracket tournament.  We’ve set up a bracket to help you concoct your dream grilled cheese combination. For starters, you’re given aged cheddar and havarti cheese on grilled rustic white bread for $4.99 and then you could spiff it up with a plethora of different meat, veggie, spread options for a small additional price. With options ranging from flank steak to jalapeño to onion mayonaise to mango, your wildest dreams might become a reality. From now until March Madness is over (April 8th), we’ll be asking you to cast your votes on our Facebook and Twitter pages for your preferred toppings until we have a winner from each bracket (2 different veggies, 1 meat, 1 spread).  Another way to vote is to just simply order a cheese melt for yourself through GoPago and whatever toppings you choose will also be counted as votes. To sweeten things up, there are deals in it for you too.  Whenever a topping beats out its opponent, that winning topping will be discounted by 50% until we reach the final round of voting, which will determine the ultimate cheese melt.  Then the winning ultimate cheese melt combination will be featured exclusively on GoPago for only $5 +tax (you’re getting some tasty toppings for free) until the end of April. Instead of having zero control over your favorite college basketball team’s outcome in March Madness, you’ve got the power in our Melty...

GoPago LIVE at the 2013 PYMNTS.com Innovator Awards

Innovations in the payment industry are so widespread right now that Leo Rocco, our CEO and Founder, compares it to the credit card revolution a half century ago. It’s exciting to be in the company with others like LevelUp, Leaf, PayPal and ShopKeep; together, with GoPago LIVE, we are revolutionizing how business and customers interact and transact. Remember when we mentioned GoPago LIVE was nominated for the Best POS Transformation award at the 2013 PYMNTS.com Innovator Awards? Well, we took home the Bronze during the awards ceremony! PYMNTS.com is a real thought leader in this category who documents the revolution, facilitates discussions and just last week they brought together the biggest industry leaders for the Innovation Project 2013 and the Innovator Awards. Two of our innovators, Leo Rocco and David Herzog, VP of Partnerships and Alliances, attended the two day conference at Harvard University. While at the conference they had lunch with Rosie Rios, Treasurer of the United States. If you aren’t familiar with her, check your dollar bills. Another key (pun always intended) person in attendance was James Goodfellow, the man who invented the PIN in 1968. Some of the key learnings from the conference that we will take with us came from a panel with Don Kingsborough, VP of Retail and Prepaid Services for PayPal and Steve Levitt, author of Freakonomics. Kingsborough shared that open platforms win and ubiquity requires multi-pronged approaches, partnerships and collaboration. We feel fortunate to have such strong partnerships with JPMorgan Chase and Verizon Wireless as we work to make GoPago LIVE the leading cloud-based POS solution. The always thought-provoking economist, Steve Levitt, stated that people don’t change behavior unless you...

Spring Into Sandwich Specials at Lou’s Cafe

There are a lot of things to put a spring in your step about  the month of March: St. Patty’s Day, the beginning of Spring, International Earth Day and now an exclusive birthday party that we’re inviting you to! Lou’s Cafe is turning three and we’re inviting you to this birthday bash as our VIP guests. For four weeks, from now until March 23, 2013, a different Lou’s sandwich will be available for $4.99 exclusively on GoPago. On Lou’s actual birthday, March 19th, you can also get a free soda with your discounted Ami-Cado sandwich. The “Ami” comes from the pastrami and salami and the “Cado” is from avocado, talk about a party in your mouth. What’s the featured sandwich this week? The Veggie sandwich and we know what you’re thinking. But trust us, it isn’t Easter bunny food. It is a spring forward hearty sandwich with alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, avocado, tomato, roasted red peppers, pepperoncinis, swiss cheese and Lou’s special sauce on a 9-grain roll. With Spring just around the corner, a Lou’s sandwich is the perfect necessity for a day in the park. Make sure to GoPago and partake in the month-long special to get a very special sandwiches at a discount....

Spring Into Sandwich Specials at Lou's Cafe

There are a lot of things to put a spring in your step about  the month of March: St. Patty’s Day, the beginning of Spring, International Earth Day and now an exclusive birthday party that we’re inviting you to! Lou’s Cafe is turning three and we’re inviting you to this birthday bash as our VIP guests. For four weeks, from now until March 23, 2013, a different Lou’s sandwich will be available for $4.99 exclusively on GoPago. On Lou’s actual birthday, March 19th, you can also get a free soda with your discounted Ami-Cado sandwich. The “Ami” comes from the pastrami and salami and the “Cado” is from avocado, talk about a party in your mouth. What’s the featured sandwich this week? The Veggie sandwich and we know what you’re thinking. But trust us, it isn’t Easter bunny food. It is a spring forward hearty sandwich with alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, avocado, tomato, roasted red peppers, pepperoncinis, swiss cheese and Lou’s special sauce on a 9-grain roll. With Spring just around the corner, a Lou’s sandwich is the perfect necessity for a day in the park. Make sure to GoPago and partake in the month-long special to get a very special sandwiches at a discount....