McDonald's is testing a mobile payment app in Utah and Texas

By ALEX GREIG

McDonald's is testing a mobile app that enables customers to order and pay for food with a swipe of their cell phone.

The fast food giant is trying out the new app at Salt Lake City, Utah and Austin, Texas stores with the intention of rolling it out country-wide if it proves successful.

The new app is the latest attempt by the company to attract the millennial market, joining competitors such as Chipotle which has a mobile payment app, and Burger King, which in some cities offers online ordering and free delivery.
After placing and paying for an order on the app, customers can pick up their food in-store, at drive-through windows or curbside.

According to CNBC, McDonald's is suffering lukewarm sales, posting a 0.2 per cent increase in same-store sales for August, which fell well short of the estimated 0.8 per cent. The fast-food chain has recently added menu items such as the McWrap and the Eggwhite Delight, designed to appeal to the millennial market, which has been difficult for the company to attract.

According to Business Insider McDonald's doesn't even rank in the top 10 favorite brands for that generation.

'McDonald's is just evolving at the same pace as consumers - especially the younger generation and millennials who really don't pay in cash,' Darren Tristano, an executive vice president at Technomic, a research and consulting firm, told CNBC.

The company already has one app which enables users to search for store locations, nutritional information and jobs, and offers free wi-fi in-store.

'We’re always looking at new technologies to make the McDonald’s experience better for our customers,' McDonald's spokesperson Lisa McComb told Bloomberg.

'We are testing some of these technologies in a few markets, so it’s premature to speculate on the decisions we may make after the tests, but we’re excited to bring a cutting-edge experience in the future to our customers.'

The notoriously brand-disloyal millennial, or Generation Y, demographic is an important market for many companies, which are going to increasing lengths to secure their business.

According to market researcher NPD Group, hamburger chains have seen a 16 per cent decline in traffic from millennials since 2007.

A big reason for the courting of millennials, a group of 80 million or so people in the U.S., is that while younger people tend to follow in the their wake, older generations are also increasingly looking to the influential group and learning how to use technology such as smartphone apps from their children.

'They're 80 million [people] but they're influencing the next 80 million, both younger and older,' Gary Stibel, CEO at New England Consulting Group told Advertising Age.

McDonald's has more than 14,000 locations in the U.S. and about 35,000 locations worldwide.