McDonald’s takes cautious steps to digital ordering

Though McDonald's had been a laggard in adopting  digital ordering, the burger chain has been looking to make sure there were no snags on the way.

The company said Wednesday that it was launching mobile order and pay across 80 chains in Northern California and Spokane, Washington as part of a pilot programme to test and receive feedback on the app before its roll out to 14,000 chains in the US later this year. The test would get underway from 20 March.

"We look forward to learning from our customers in these markets as they order ahead, pay within the app and choose one of the various ways to pick up and enjoy their favorite McDonald's foods," Julia Vander Ploeg, vice president of US Digital for McDonald's, said in a statement.

Though restaurant chains had reaped benefits with mobile ordering, it had not come without pain, even for industry leaders like Panera and Starbucks.

Starbucks said in January that the popularity of its mobile ordering and pay app had caused bottlenecks at pickup counters and had ultimately hurt sales.

Mobile transactions had shot at its US coffee shop locations last quarter, with 1,200 of its locations experiencing a 20 per cent jump in mobile pay and ordering during peak hours.

McDonald's, however, will be implementing the technology somewhat differently from its fast food rivals; it will use geo-fencing technology to track customers' location, so that their food was prepared only when they were physically near the store. This would mean the food would not have to remain under heat lamps for too long.

According to commentators, the time savings this would produce for some customers was questionable, as McDonald's had already made a number of improvements to speed up its service over the years.

Besides, mobile ordering McDonald's had been testing other ways to reach new customers in the digital age. According to a recent filing it was also experimenting with delivery, including through partnerships with third-party services worldwide.