McDonald's China future concept restaurant opens in Beijing

McDonald's China launched its first "Experience of the future" flagship restaurant in Beijing yesterday as part of a move to embrace digital dining and online-to-offline services. Customers can self-order and payment can be made with bank cards or mobile payment systems including Alipay and WeChat. The restaurant also has a mobile ordering system which allows customers to scan a QR code on the table, customise their burgers and have them delivered to their tables without leaving their seats. McDonald's China has over 2,200 stores and sales grew 4% in Q4 2015. According to Phyllis Cheung, CEO of McDonald's China, the company plans to open 250 new stores this year in third and fourth-tier cities, the most in any market.

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MCDONALD’S China aims to open 250 new stores in China this year, the most of any market, while also pushing digital ordering for made-to-order burgers.

The new stores will be mostly located in third and fourth-tier cities, said Phyllis Cheung, CEO of McDonald’s China.

She said 150 stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen will have self-service ordering machines for customers to customize their burgers by the end of this year.

“Within two to three years, we hope mobile ordering and other digital capabilities would cover all of our restaurants in China, and we will also launch our proprietary smartphone application for ordering by the end of this year,” Cheung said.

Yesterday, McDonald’s unveiled the “Experience of the future” flagship restaurant in Beijing’s Wangfujing Street where customers can customize their burgers by ordering via the outlet’s official WeChat account and have them delivered to their tables without leaving their seats.

The next McDonald’s future concept outlet in China will open in Shenzhen later this year, and Cheung said there are plans to turn existing stores into concept ones.

McDonald’s sales in China, where it has over 2,200 stores, grew 4 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, versus a 5 percent rise globally, President and CEO Steve Easterbrook said earlier this week.