Business Insider reports that as McDonald's begins to implement its plans to roll out a national mobile ordering-and-payment system, one of its goals will be to avoid the problems suffered by companies such as Starbucks and Chipotle, where high usage rates have resulted in some delays and even customer walkouts.
Mobile ordering, the story says, "is expected to be a $38 billion industry by 2020, accounting for more than 10% of total fast-food sales, according to a BI Intelligence report. However, if chains want mobile ordering to succeed, it isn't as simple as just adding an app. These chains will need to create an entirely new ordering experience, inside and outside of the store."
And, it goes on: "Mobile ordering has the potential to revolutionize the fast-food industry, but it's not a band aid fix that chains can simply slap on with an app update. Instead, as many chains are realizing now, it's something that can cause just as many problems as solutions."
Mobile ordering, the story says, "is expected to be a $38 billion industry by 2020, accounting for more than 10% of total fast-food sales, according to a BI Intelligence report. However, if chains want mobile ordering to succeed, it isn't as simple as just adding an app. These chains will need to create an entirely new ordering experience, inside and outside of the store."
And, it goes on: "Mobile ordering has the potential to revolutionize the fast-food industry, but it's not a band aid fix that chains can simply slap on with an app update. Instead, as many chains are realizing now, it's something that can cause just as many problems as solutions."
- KC's View:
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There seems to be considerable evidence out there that mobile ordering has created these sorts of traffic problems at various retailers, but in my view, this would be classified as a first-world problem. No argument that the issues have to be dealt with, but having to deal with these problems strikes me as a lot better than having to deal with too few customers and orders.
For the record, I use my Starbucks mobile ordering app frequently, and rarely have had any sort of problem. Maybe I'm just lucky.
