McDonald's will offer in-app order and payment, starting next year

The food at McDonald's is about to get faster. The famous burger chain announced that it will follow in the steps of Starbucks, Taco Bell and many other companies in the industry and will start accepting orders and payment through the McDonald's smartphone app.

According to Becca Harry, McDonald's spokeswoman, the feature will start rolling out next year for select locations in the US, Australia, Canada and the UK. The fast-food giant is aiming to have the feature available for 20,000 to 25,000 restaurants around the globe by 2018.

The technology should allow customers to skip the long lines and waiting times and actually get fast-food, not semi-quick-food. It will also be possible to order ahead of time and should pave the way for better order accuracy.

This is not the first time we hear of in-app orders from McDonald's. Steve Easterbrook, the company's CEO, talked about it in 2015 and some limited tests were performed earlier this year in Columbus, Georgia. However, the tests were later discontinued.

It's curious why the biggest fast-food chain in the world has yet to release such a feature. Some of its competitors have already marked great success with such an approach. Starbucks, for example, has reported that about 25% of its customers use the Starbucks app to pay for their coffee and about 6% use it to place an order ahead of time. Chick-fil-A has reported similar success – its app has been downloaded by more than 8 million people since launch.

As avid burger lovers and true smartphone fanatics, we look at the possibility to order through our handsets and we're lovin' it.

source: BusinessInsider via SlashGear