Pancho Villa has incorporated the Tabbedout app into its point-of-sale system to let smartphone users pay via their handsets. The Tabbedout app is being used by more than 400 merchants in the United States.

“Tabbedout is continuing to focus on merchant adoption, and this partnership is another proof point to our growing success,” said Arturo Coto, president of marketing at Tabbedout, Austin, TX.

“Our app integrates directly with the merchant’s existing POS system and does not require additional hardware or changes to their existing card processing services, making the adoption of the mobile payment solution easy for both our merchants and Tabbedout users,” he said.

Pancho Villa is a fast casual restaurant in Sterling Heights, MI.

Mobile Mexican
The Tabbedout app is available for free download from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market.

The app uses a mobile device’s location to find nearby restaurants. Pancho Villa is now listed under the locations tab in the app.

Additionally, users must create a Tabbedout account that ties with a credit card to pay for their meals.

Consumers can also view Pancho Villa’s contact information via the app, including the address, phone number and Web site.

The app also incorporates social features that let users share that they are using the app via Twitter, Facebook and foursquare.

Tabbed in
In addition to Tabbedout’s recent partnerships, the company also began testing PayPal payments (see story).

At the South by Southwest festival, diners at 16 restaurants in Austin had the option of paying for their meals using their PayPal account number.

In addition, by adding a list of merchants and restaurants to the app, Tabbedout is on the right track to help restaurants roll out mobile payments on a local level.

The app also shows users how to tie their credit card to the app, which helps educate them on how to use their smartphones for more complex transactions.

“Tabbedout’s current focus is on the hospitality industry where there is an immediate need to improve the pay and close-out process in bars and restaurants,” Mr. Coto said.

“By offering Tabbedout, merchants give their patrons more flexibility in the way they can pay,” he said.

“Tabbedout enables merchant staff to spend more time serving food and drinks and providing a better customer experience, instead of dealing with the more cumbersome closeout process required with plastic or cash-based transactions. Happy consumers mean repeat customers for our merchants.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York