McDonald’s tests home delivery in UberEATS partnership

By Danny Parisi

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December 19, 2016

Soon McDonald’s customers may be able to order food delivered straight to their home

Storied fast food brand McDonald’s is testing home delivery in a few cities around the country thanks to a partnership with UberEATS, following McDonald’s continued mobile efforts.

The move comes after McDonald’s has finally begun to thaw the ice around its mobile commerce offerings. The brand is seeking to move further into the world of mobile convenience to stay competitive with other fast food chains.

“Mobile ordering is certainly not a recent phenomenon,” said Chester Ritchie, senior vice president at Worldpay, Orange Country, CA. “Industry insights suggest now is the time to get in the game.

Golden archesMcDonald’s is one of the world’s leading fast food brands with thousands of locations around the world. While the brand has a safe position in the fast food world, there is always room for improvement and in a changing mobile world, positions can change in an instant.

For many fast food chains, mobile has been a key battleground in terms of capturing sales and customer attention.

Many brands have begun investing heavily in mobile and offering mobile ordering options as a way of increasing their standing in this competitive industry.

Mobile has been increasingly prominent in consumers’ lives and for many has taken over completely in terms of being the preferred channel for digital interaction.

In response to that, mobile ordering and mobile rewards programs have become the norm for brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks.

But while other brands were pushing forward with new mobile initiatives, McDonald’s remained notably silent on that front. That was until recently, when the brand finally introduced mobile ordering through its smartphone application (see story).

Since then, the brand has begun investing more heavily into mobile and is now taking another step forward with a partnership with Uber’s UberEATS program to bring McDonald’s straight to customers’ doors with the help of mobile.

The partnership is only in the testing rounds for now, as the brand goes through a few trial runs in Florida. If all goes well, customers all around the globe could have a powerful new way to purchase McDonald’s food.

Mobile testMcDonald’s has long been a pioneering force in the world of fast food, but its hesitance to dive in fully to the mobile world could be seen as the brand resting on its laurels.

But mobile is revolutionizing so many industries so quickly that McDonald’s could hardly wait much longer to begin integrating new mobile strategies.

The brand has already begun mobile ordering through its mobile app (see story), and is looking to continue that strategy in the future.

While the new feature is only a test right now, a successful run could see it expanded beyond the initial trial.

“Often times large restaurant chains will test payment initiatives in key markets and gauge their success and ROI,” said Jordan McKee, an analyst at Yankee Group, Boston.