McDonald's
Benefits of Our Transformation
Using cosine similarity modeling to track store performance and provide actionable insights for McDelivery expansion and investment decisions.
About McDonalds
McDonald’s is one of the world’s most recognised quick-service restaurant brands, operating thousands of outlets across multiple markets. As customer expectations evolved and delivery became a central pillar of growth, McDonald’s sought to expand its McDelivery service while maintaining operational excellence and profitability. To succeed, the company needed a clear understanding of how delivery impacted store performance - both for participating and non-participating locations - and a framework for identifying the right stores for future rollouts and refurbishment investments.
Results That
Matter
Improved
ROI
Faster
Rollout Speed
Stronger
Franchise Engagement
Enhanced
Operational Insight
The Opportunity
The business faced two main challenges. First, to understand how McDelivery affected performance across different stores in order to guide future expansion. Second, to identify the high-performing store attributes that could inform targeted investment decisions and franchise engagement. The head office also aimed to maximise ROI by using data to cluster restaurants based on performance, ensuring that refurbishment spending was directed toward the locations with the highest potential returns.
Solutions Delivered
Beyond partnered with McDonald’s to develop a comprehensive, data-driven decision support solution focused on performance insight, rollout strategy, and franchise collaboration.
- Store Profiling: Built a model to analyse and compare stores based on performance metrics, identifying patterns between top- and bottom-performing sites.
Performance Tracking and Analysis: Developed analytical tools to track delivery performance, allowing direct comparison between delivery-enabled and non-delivery stores.
Actionable Insights for Targeted Improvements: Generated store-level insights that enabled McDonald’s to prioritise rollout locations and identify key investment opportunities for refurbishment and operational improvement.
Results & Impact
The data-driven framework provided McDonald’s with the clarity and confidence to make major strategic decisions.
- Identified High- and Low-Potential Stores: The model distinguished which stores were best suited for McDelivery expansion, ensuring resources were directed toward the most promising locations.
- Enhanced Franchise Engagement: Data transparency helped franchise owners understand the business case behind delivery rollouts, increasing buy-in and collaboration.
- Targeted Refurbishments for Added ROI: McDonald’s was able to focus investment on specific sites with the greatest potential, achieving measurable efficiency gains and optimised performance across the network.
Lesson Learned
McDonald’s transformation highlights the importance of evidence-led decision-making in large-scale operations. By using data science to guide rollout and investment strategies, the company not only improved commercial performance but also strengthened alignment between corporate teams and franchise owners. The case shows that in complex retail networks, the greatest efficiencies come from using insight to connect strategy, investment, and operational execution — turning analysis into sustained business advantage.
Incredibly professional and articulate in their findings; very diligent in the work behind the analysis.
Daniel Smith, Head of Business Insights, McDonald’s
