McDonald's beefs up UberEats delivery with 1,000 more restaurants

Dive Brief:

McDonald’s, the biggest U.S. restaurant chain with $8.3 billion in sales last year, expanded its home delivery service to Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix and Columbus, Ohio, according to CNBC. Customers can place orders through the UberEats website or mobile application on iOS or Android.
The addition of about 1,000 restaurants offering delivery boosted McDonald’s nationwide total to 1,266 after testing the service this year in Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Meanwhile, ride-hailing pioneer Uber offers UberEats delivery in 83 cities globally.
UberEats, which replaced the UberRush service on May 8, allows mobile users to order anything from the regular McDonald’s menu. The restaurants package the meal for delivery and hand it off to an Uber driver. A flat fee of $4.99 is then added to the customer’s bill.

Dive Insight:

McDonald’s said in March that home delivery is a key part of its growth plan to lure back the 500 million customers it's lost since 2012. It’s too early to tell if home delivery is helping to drive higher sales, as recent growth was helped by a $1 coffee deal and a Big Mac promotion. Last month, the company said same-store sales in the U.S. grew 1.7%, surprising financial analysts who anticipated a decline of 0.8%. McDonald’s is on track to become the first major fast food chain to implement mobile ordering at all U.S. locations, according to a report in CNBC. The strategy is expected to include all 14,094 U.S. restaurants and 20,000 globally by the end of 2017.

The burger chain estimated that 75% of the population in its top five markets — U.S., Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. — live within three miles of a McDonald’s, making restaurants well suited for home delivery. In addition, the company cited “the explosive growth in third-party delivery companies” for helping to roll out the service. Mobile apps like Caviar, DoorDash, GrubHub, Postmates, Seamless and Yelp Eat24 also provide McDonald’s delivery in some regions.

McDonald’s isn’t alone among fast food companies that have see growth in the delivery space. This month, Wendy's began testing the service at 135 locations in Ohio. Burger King offers delivery at select locations that require a search by ZIP code. That’s true of other chains as well, as third-party mobile ordering apps give customers the most information on which fast food purveyors deliver.