McDonald’s is going to introduce huge digital improvements in Hungary

Your Big Mac will be delivered to your table, you won’t need to stand in a queue, you will be able to order and pay through an application and customize your own burger. According to Forbes.hu, McDonald’s is going to introduce huge digital improvements in the whole world, and Hungary will also receive its share. However, we do not know how great extension they plan after the recent closures. 

McDonald’s corporation gained back its strength after a couple of years of suffering and losing market shares, but a recent report made the investors happy. From 2012 on, McDonald’s has gone through an underperformance for about four years, being unable to increase. Then it went on fire in the past six months. It went above the historical record by 5% in recent marketing reports. Does it have anything to do with the development plan that was declared even for Hungarian restaurants last week?

It probably has, but the fresh skyrocketing on the stock market may be related to the improvement of efficiency, that became higher than expected. While the entire American fast food sector declined for the fourth month in row compared to last year’s data, McDonald’s could increase. What is more important, its income was 5.53 billion dollars instead of the expected 5.68 billion, and the profit per share was 1.47 dollar instead of the expected 1.33.

This could not only happen because of the refunding and digitalization of the restaurants, or the introduction of more and more comfort-functions. These were tested only in a few units in the first quarter of the year. The increase in profit are more likely explained by experts by the reformation of the menu: Big Mac is offered in three sizes in the USA, and they come up with drink sales of one or two dollars. Customers also like that breakfast menu is now extended for the entire day.

Hungarian McDonald’s customers haven’t got anything from that, but we weren’t shut out from the developments. The company told at the event held for shareholders in March that they are planning improvements in certain restaurants under the name “the experience of the future”, and this could have already affected the share prices, as marked by the fact that this program made some analysts improve McDonald’s grading. The professional of Wells Fargo highlighted that McDonald’s will be the first to introduce ordering and paying by smartphone in the USA, covering its entire network by the end of the year.

The Hungarian subsidiary of McDonald’s declared practically the same at the contributors’ event. We asked some questions for the sake of the full picture, and here is what we can expect according to their answers.

The foundation stone of the improvement program is the ordering process supported by digital technology and the online/smartphone paying method. They will also establish self-service kiosks, even two of them in Hungary.

Some say that browsing the products and purchasing is easier is and quicker through own devices or restaurant kiosks. Products will also be more customizable. We can order cheeseburger without pickles or ketchup already, but the delivery of the special orders took time. With the help of digital ordering not only the waiting decreases, but the number of options also increase, there will be a greater variety for customizable goods. They promised that each product will be prepared uniquely, exclusively for the order, and the ingredients will be freely customizable. The plans for varieties and the relevant products are not definitive yet, but they will give information by the time of the openings.