On Monday, McDonald’s (MCD) announced that it will be the first fast food chain to have mobile ordering at all U.S. restaurants by the end of the year. Many competitors are also on the move with their own systems, but will be behind schedule. The drive to improve speedy service may ultimately translate to an increase in same store sales.

Mobile Ordering

Just when it seemed like McDonald’s was suffering in sales at its fast-food locations, things might start to pick up. That is because the company announced that it would have mobile ordering and pay systems at all 14,000 U.S. locations by the fourth quarter of 2017.

The good part about announcing this is that McDonald’s will be the first out of all the fast chains to have this task completed. That creates a first mover advantage in an industry that has been constantly evolving. Customers will be able to place orders and pay from their smartphone.

That avoids two big issues that many of these fast food chains have to deal with. That is having to deal with very long lines at busy times, and having to wait to order at the in-store kiosks.

Why is a first mover advantage a good thing for McDonald’s? That is because, according to BI Intelligence Report, mobile ordering is expected to become a $38 billion industry in terms of fast-food sales by 2020. That would account for 10% of the total amount of sales during the year for all fast food chains.

Lagging Behind

McDonald’s has a huge opportunity to take the lead with respect to the mobile ordering system. That is because a lot of the competitors in the space are lagging behind. The only fast-food chain that comes close to McDonald’s in terms of mobile ordering is Wendy’s. But not even Wendy’s is close enough.

That is because Wendy’s will only expect to have 50% of it stores enabled with mobile ordering by the fourth quarter of 2017. That is a huge difference with McDonald’s having 100% equipped to handle mobile ordering.

Other burger giants such as Jack in the Box, and Burger King aren’t even past the testing phase. With this first mover advantage, many analysts are boosting the value of McDonald’s stock. Jeff Farmer, a senior equity analyst at Wells Fargo, raised the stock’s rating. He raised the stock from “market perform” to “outperform”, with a price target between $145 to $150 per share.

He believes that the stock will advance thanks to the company being the first to deliver full mobile ordering capability in all of its domestic restaurants by Q4 2017.

Same Store Sales

A key metric in most restaurant companies is same store sales. It determines the rate of growth that stores achieved being open one year or more. The global same store sales growth was remarkable. Global same store sales increased by 2.7% in the previous quarter. The reason for the climb was improved sales in China, Japan, U.K., and some Latin American markets.

The same can’t be said about same store sales in the U.S. though. Same store sales in the U.S. fell by 1.3%. The good news is that the mobile order and pay system might boost same store sales. The bad news is that it won’t be fully implemented until the 4th quarter of 2017. That means McDonald’s will have to rely on its all-day breakfast and other programs to boost same store sales in the meantime.

What Binary Options Traders Should Watch For

There are a few things that traders should watch.

The first of which is how the roll out of the mobile ordering plays out. It will be important to see how the public perceives the new mobile order system. If it becomes popular, that will definitely boost sales for McDonald’s.

The second item would be the competitors. McDonald’s will be first to market, which gives it a year or more as an advantage. The key point is that it won’t last long. Wendy’s will have at least 50% of its stores implemented with mobile ordering by the fourth quarter of 2017.

The final item that traders should keep an eye on would be how the same store sales play out over the next few quarters. The key comparison would be comparing Q3 2017 to the end of Q4 2017. That will indicate if same store sales are being somewhat boosted by the new mobile ordering system.