McDonald's expands delivery service through ordering app

Fast food chain McDonald's unveils its global growth plan during the investor day event on Wednesday that includes delivery and digital enhancements. The fast food giant is set to launch an app where diners can place orders for pickup as part of its delivery services expansion.

The burger chain reveals that the app, set to be available in US stores soon, will be able to access the customer's app profiles in addition to customized favorites and preferred payment methods. McDonald's says the new app will also allow customers to place orders for pickup alongside simplifying the drive-thru access by reading the code to the cashier instead of shouting their orders through a car window. These advancements are part of McDonald's "Experience of the Future" vision.

Notably, almost 75 percent of the population in McDonald's top five markets that includes US, France, UK, Germany and Canada, live within three miles of a McDonald's thus the new initiative of an ordering app. This will also help boost profits and draw back customers who have strayed away from the Big Mac maker. Sales in the US plummeted last quarter according to an earnings report released last month. Apart from that, McDonald's is facing tougher competition with rivals like Shake Shack, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

"As customers' expectations increased, McDonald's simply didn't keep pace with them. Making meaningful improvements in quality, convenience and value will win back some of McDonald's best customers," the company said in a press release statement. McDonald's is not the first to launch an ordering app as it has been already done by Starbucks, Chik-fil-A, Taco Bell and Chipotle. Although the McDonald's delivery business is already available and successful in China and other markets abroad, it's still not available everywhere.

The company says it's experimenting with different delivery models as it aims to become the global leader in delivery. McDonald's will launch the mobile order and pay option at 20,000 restaurants in the US and abroad sometime this year.