Dive Brief:
- McDonald’s is counting loyalty and digital ordering initiatives among its key strategies in 2025 as it looks to recover from a weak finish to 2024, executives said on a Q4 2024 earnings call Monday.
- The MyMcDonald’s Rewards loyalty program reached more than 170 million active users in a 90-day period during the quarter, according to President and CEO Chris Kempczinski. Sales attributable to loyalty members were up 30% year over year in 2024.
- However, the strong loyalty performance was not enough to offset the impact of an E. coli outbreak, caused by contaminated onions on certain hamburgers, which disrupted the chain’s momentum. McDonald’s U.S. comparable sales fell 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to an earnings release.
Dive Insight:
The MyMcDonald’s Rewards app is among the handholds McDonald’s is reaching for after stumbling in its latest quarter.
Loyalty customers spend more than customers outside the loyalty system, according to Kempczinski. The restaurant chain is aiming to build on their spending habits by adding more offers and features to its digital suite.
“As you know, we've talked a lot about the fact that loyalty drives more visits and those customers spend more over time, and as we are continuing to build new and incremental capabilities and sources of value for consumers, we know we're going to be able to get those customers to spend more,” Kempczinski said.
MyMcDonald’s Rewards presented a bright spot in an otherwise weak year. Loyalty members accounted for $30 billion of the company’s $130 billion in global sales, according to the earnings release.
McDonald’s is maintaining previously announced goals for its loyalty ecosystem. The company aims to reach 250 million 90-day active users and $45 billion in annual systemwide loyalty sales by the end of 2027, according to Kempczinski.
The restaurant chain is maintaining Accelerating the Arches strategy, which places a heavy emphasis on digital capabilities, according to Kempczinski.
The plan paid off earlier in the year. U.S. customer satisfaction scores hit an “all-time high,” and drive-thru service times were down year over year in Q3 2024, according to Ian Borden, EVP and CFO at McDonald’s, on an October earnings call.
The company is building on this success by expanding its Ready on Arrival system to markets across the world, according to Kempczinski. The system, which uses geofencing technology to alert kitchen staff when a customer with a mobile order is approaching the restaurant, helped reduce drive-thru service times in a U.S. pilot.
