The world’s first completely integrated e-commerce site for an FEC has been created by Dubai-based operator Landmark Leisure, owner of the Fun City brand of locations.
Family entertainment centres can now go online for the first time, catching up with the industry’s retail counterpart in shopping malls. It is a major step by the big operator in improving the customer experience; online card purchase and top-up convenience, no queuing, ease of credit and ticket management. Soon it will also be possible to redeem tickets online.
Said Landmark COO Silvio Liedtke: “We will also shortly be launching the website for our other brands, Fun Ville and Fun Works, plus we will launch a mobile app that will pack much more action and surprises.”
Fun City is the UAE’s largest FEC chain and has locations also in other surrounding countries. It has over 15 million visitors across the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) countries and focuses on entertaining children aged up to eight years.
“Visitors will no longer have to wait in a line every Monday as their child gears up to make the most of Funday Monday, Fun City’s well-known promotion in which all the kiddie rides, major rides and blue swiper games are available for just AED1 (€0.23 cents) per swipe.”
Liedtke said that the new e-commerce site would “transform the user experience in a huge way.” He said: “Fun City cards can be recharged from home or work instead of at the cash counters in the locations. A new card can be bought, the player can check credit and ticket balance, manage cards, earn and burn points and manage multiple power cards for the entire family with the user interface.”
Fun City’s partner in the technology was Embed, the debit card specialist company that supplies the chain’s prepaid card system. Rosa Tahmaseb, managing director of Embed International EMEA, said: “We have a strong relationship with the Fun City team and we worked together very closely on this project.”
Fun City has locations in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and India.
