Kofax Limited Monday announced a new mobile app for gift card balance inquiries based on the Kofax Mobile Capture Platform, the company said in a press release. Calling it the first of its kind, Kofax said the new mobile app allows consumers to check the balance remaining on a gift card via their smartphones and enables card issuers to use mobile engagement to drive greater customer loyalty and revenue.

Kofax will demonstrate the gift card balance inquiry mobile app at FinovateSpring 2014, a showcase of cutting-edge financial and banking technology innovations currently taking place in San Jose, Calif. The demonstration will show how consumers can use the camera in mobile devices to snap a picture of the back of a gift card and automatically send it via the cloud to the Kofax Mobile Capture Platform, which reads it, securely accesses the issuer's database and displays the gift card's remaining balance in near real time, Kofax said in the press release.

Kofax cited a CEB TowerGroup's 2013 gift card report that found annual gift card use is growing and fast approaching $140 billion in volume, with $1.7 billion going unspent per year. With many states boosting revenue by collecting unused retail gift card funds under so-called "abandoned property" laws, retailers have significant motivation to help consumers spend those balances. Data from the study also shows that consumers spend on average 20-30 percent more when they use a gift card or apply gift card funds to retail purchases, another incentive for issuers to help consumers know their gift card balances, Kofax cited in the release.

"By offering a convenient way to check balances via smartphones, retailers can now make it easier for consumers to spend gift cards," Drew Hyatt, senior vice president of mobile applications at Kofax, said in a press release. "This is just one more value-added mobile service that card issuers using the Kofax Mobile Capture Platform can offer to increase customer loyalty and revenue."