Dive Brief:
- McDonald’s is focusing on frequency to drive growth, and its loyalty program will play an important role in that strategy, executives said on a Q2 2025 earnings call Wednesday.
- Non-loyalty U.S. customers visit a McDonald’s location 10.5 times annually on average, President and CEO Chris Kempczinski said. Visit frequency jumps to 26 visits per year when they become MyMcDonald’s Rewards members.
- McDonald's “opportunity is always around frequency,” Kempczinski said during the call. “And so getting more and more consumers to be in our loyalty program — that's how we're going to drive this business, because it's going to be frequency-led growth.”
Dive Insight:
On top of growth, McDonald’s sees its loyalty program as an essential part of its CX and technology strategy.
“Running great restaurants is just one component of serving up great customer experience,” Kempczinski said. “Our fans want greater personalization, convenience and value, and bringing millions more consumers into the McDonald's digital universe is how we're ensuring customers feel seen and satisfied with each and every visit.”
In 2023, the fast food company set a goal of growing from 150 million to 250 million active loyalty users by the end of 2027, according to Kempczinski. McDonald’s reached 185 million 90-day active users in the second quarter of 2025.
While McDonald’s is making progress on the size of its loyalty program, “the short answer is it's just not big enough,” Kempczinski said.
“As I mentioned, in the U.S., roughly around one-fourth of our consumers are in the loyalty program,” he said. “But when we look to markets like China, when you can get the number to 90% or something along those lines, that's when you would see some really significant benefits attached to that.”
McDonald’s financial performance was a strong point even if loyalty still has room to grow.
The company reversed its earlier same-store sales decline with a global 3.8% year-over-year comparable sales increase in the second quarter of 2025, according to a company earnings report. Comparable sales were up 2.5% year over year in the U.S.
