# Loyalty, Leveled Up: How We're Building the Next Generation of Rewards

DevFeed: [Loyalty, Leveled Up: How We're Building the Next Generation of Rewards](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/loyalty-leveled-up-how-we-re-building-the-next-generation-of-rewards-26634.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://medium.com/mcdonalds-technical-blog/loyalty-leveled-up-how-were-building-the-next-generation-of-rewards-bde6eb70e682?source=rss----3bac42476d27---4>)

Author: Global Technology

Published: 2026-09-15T13:14:46Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/mcdonald-s-technical-blog-medium.md>)

Topics: [Product Management](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/product-management.md>), [Mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mobile.md>), [personalization](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/personalization.md>), [App](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/app.md>)

Tags: [app](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/app.md>), [customer-experience](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/customer-experience.md>), [loyalty-program](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/loyalty-program.md>), [mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mobile.md>), [personalization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/personalization.md>), [platform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/platform.md>), [product-management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product-management.md>), [technology](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/technology.md>), [user-experience](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/user-experience.md>)

## AI overview

McDonald's describes how its teams redesigned the Rewards experience as a loyalty platform rather than a simple rewards list. The work focused on reducing friction, improving personalization, and integrating rewards into the mobile ordering journey. By September 2026, the redesigned experience was live across the company's lead Global Mobile App markets.

## Source excerpt

From simpler experiences to smarter systems, this is how loyalty evolves at global scale. by Sara Robertson, Sr. Manager, Product Management Quick Bytes Loyalty operates at massive scale, but customer research showed that finding, understanding, and using rewards didn't always feel easy in the moments that mattered most By rethinking loyalty as a platform -- not just a rewards list -- teams reduced friction, introduced scalable personalization, and embedded value directly into the ordering journey The result is a simpler, more intuitive loyalty experience designed to grow with customers and support long-term global scale Loyalty at McDonald's operates at a scale few brands have ever achieved. Every day, millions of customers engage with McDonald's Rewards -- each with their own habits, preferences, and expectations. As the program grows, so does our ambition: deliver a loyalty experience that feels effortless, personal, and genuinely valuable for everyone. That ambition is tied to a clear leadership focus: continuing to grow our global loyalty customer base by making loyalty so intuitive, flexible, and valuable that it becomes a natural part of how customers use the app. As McDonald's continues its journey to build one of the world's leading loyalty programs, simplicity and customer value remain at the center of every decision. That's why teams across Product, Engineering, and Experience Design -- together with cross-functional partners across the Global team, segments, and markets -- collaborated to reimagine the loyalty experience. As of September 2026, the experience is now live across all of our lead Global Mobile App (GMA) markets. Designing for growth starts with reducing friction Customer research made one thing clear early on: loyalty was valuable, but engaging with it didn't always feel easy. Customers told us rewards could be hard to find, confusing to understand, or disconnected from the actual moment they were ordering food. Too often, rewards were remembered