How Southwest Wheel partnered with Mode Effect to become 80% e-commerce driven

For most companies, surviving a decade is an accomplishment.

For Southwest Wheel, longevity has always been part of the story.

Founded in 1918, Southwest Wheel has spent more than a century serving customers in the trailer parts industry. Over those 107 years, the company has evolved from manufacturing products in-house to becoming one of the country’s most recognized distributors of trailer parts, wheels, axles, and related components.

That kind of longevity doesn’t happen by accident.

It happens because a company learns how to adapt.

According to Executive Vice President Darrick Sweeten, adaptation has been one of the defining characteristics of Southwest Wheel’s success.

“If you don’t learn to change and adapt, you won’t be around that long.”

That mindset helped Southwest Wheel embrace e-commerce long before many companies in their industry even considered selling online. In fact, the company began investing in internet commerce in the late 1990s, making them one of the early adopters of digital selling within the trailer parts industry.

Today, e-commerce represents approximately 80% of the company’s business.

But success brought new challenges.

Over time, the digital landscape changed. Customer behavior changed. Marketplaces changed. Search changed.

And Southwest Wheel found itself facing a familiar question:

How do you continue evolving without losing what made you successful in the first place?

When Marketplace Growth Stops Being the Answer

Like many e-commerce companies, Southwest Wheel experienced tremendous growth through Amazon and other online marketplaces.

For years, those platforms delivered sales and visibility.

But eventually Darrick and his team began noticing a shift.

Margins became tighter.

Competition became more aggressive.

Low-cost overseas sellers flooded the marketplace ecosystem.

Most importantly, customer relationships belonged to the marketplace—not to Southwest Wheel.

“We got addicted to the marketplace structure,” Darrick explains. “And then we realized we needed to start focusing back on our own technology.”

The goal wasn’t simply to drive more sales.

The goal was to create a stronger, more sustainable business by bringing customers back to channels the company actually owned.

That meant investing in their websites, their customer experience, their brand, and their long-term digital strategy.

It also meant finding a partner capable of helping them navigate the next phase of growth.

More Than a Development Partner

After nearly three decades in e-commerce, Darrick has heard every sales pitch imaginable.

Every week, agencies promise better rankings, more traffic, more leads, and more conversions.

Most sound exactly the same.

“What I hear is usually cookie cutter,” Darrick says. “Insert company name here, insert solution here.”

What Southwest Wheel needed wasn’t another vendor.

They needed a partner that understood their business.

A partner willing to challenge assumptions.

A partner capable of balancing long-term strategy with practical execution.

That’s what ultimately made the relationship with Mode Effect different.

Rather than simply completing development tasks, Mode Effect became a strategic extension of the Southwest Wheel team.

Together, they evaluated opportunities, tested ideas, challenged conventional thinking, and created a roadmap for sustainable growth.

Sometimes that meant recommending new technologies.

Sometimes it meant improving user experience.

And sometimes it meant convincing a 28-year e-commerce veteran that there were still new things worth learning.

Recommendation #1: Stop Thinking Every Customer Is a One-Time Buyer

One of the biggest mindset shifts came from a surprisingly simple question:

What if customers were worth more than a single transaction?

For years, Southwest Wheel operated under a common assumption within the trailer parts industry.

Customers typically purchased trailer parts when something broke.

They found the part they needed.

They bought it.

The transaction ended.

Darrick openly admits that for much of his career, that was how he viewed online commerce.

“The internet was always one and done,” he says.

From his perspective, customers weren’t necessarily looking to build a relationship. They were solving a problem.

Mode Effect challenged that assumption.

Through ongoing conversations and strategic planning, the team encouraged Southwest Wheel to think differently about customer retention, repeat purchases, and brand loyalty.

That shift led to greater investment in customer engagement strategies, retention efforts, and owned marketing channels.

The result was a fundamental change in how the company viewed growth.

Instead of focusing exclusively on the next sale, Southwest Wheel began focusing on building long-term customer relationships.

Today, Darrick sees that transformation as one of the most important changes the business has made.

“It’s less one-and-done and more building something.”

That mindset has helped the company strengthen customer loyalty while reducing dependence on third-party marketplaces.

Recommendation #2: Customer Reviews Are More Powerful Than You Think

Sometimes the best recommendations are the ones you resist the longest.

For Darrick, customer reviews were one of those recommendations.

For years, Southwest Wheel operated successfully without a significant review strategy.

In his mind, reviews simply weren’t necessary.

The company had built a strong reputation, a loyal customer base, and decades of industry expertise.

Why change what was already working?

Mode Effect saw things differently.

The team understood that modern consumers increasingly rely on reviews to build trust, validate purchasing decisions, and compare suppliers.

Reviews weren’t just social proof.

They were an important component of search visibility, customer confidence, and conversion optimization.

It took time.

But eventually Darrick agreed to implement a stronger review strategy.

Today, he jokes that he wishes he had listened sooner.

“I kick myself now. We could have had a hundred thousand reviews by now.”

What seemed like a small recommendation ultimately became a significant business asset.

Reviews helped strengthen trust with customers.

They provided valuable feedback.

They reinforced Southwest Wheel’s credibility.

And they created a foundation for future growth.

It’s a perfect example of what happens when a trusted partner is willing to challenge long-held assumptions.

Recommendation #3: Preparing for the AI Revolution Before It Arrives

Perhaps the most exciting part of Southwest Wheel’s story is what comes next.

While many businesses are still trying to understand artificial intelligence, Southwest Wheel is already preparing for its impact on e-commerce.

Darrick compares today’s AI movement to the early days of internet commerce in the late 1990s.

Back then, many companies dismissed online selling as a trend.

The businesses that embraced it early gained a competitive advantage.

He believes the same thing is happening with AI.

“We’re about to enter the realm of AI bots,” Darrick says. “It’s going to be game changing.”

Recognizing that opportunity, Mode Effect has already begun helping Southwest Wheel prepare for the future.

Together, the teams are exploring:

• AI-driven search behavior
• Product data optimization
• AI discoverability strategies
• Content enhancements
• Prompt-driven commerce experiences
• Emerging customer buying behaviors

Rather than reacting after the market changes, Southwest Wheel is proactively positioning itself for what’s next.

This forward-thinking approach has become one of the defining characteristics of the partnership.

Mode Effect isn’t simply solving today’s challenges.

They’re helping Southwest Wheel prepare for tomorrow’s opportunities.

Beyond Technology: Building a Smarter Business

One of the most revealing parts of Darrick’s story is that many of the biggest wins weren’t technical at all.

They were strategic.

Mode Effect helped Southwest Wheel think differently about growth.

Instead of pursuing growth at all costs, the conversation shifted toward attracting the right customers.

Instead of maximizing volume, the focus shifted toward improving margins and customer quality.

Instead of chasing every opportunity, the team worked together to identify the opportunities that aligned with long-term business goals.

That strategic perspective has become increasingly valuable as Southwest Wheel continues to scale.

As Darrick explains, some recommendations worked immediately.

Others took time to prove themselves.

And some ideas that seemed small eventually became major drivers of success.

Whether discussing reviews, email marketing, social media, usability improvements, advanced search functionality, or AI readiness, the common theme remained the same:

Continual improvement.

Continual learning.

Continual adaptation.

The Results: Stronger Relationships, Greater Control, and a Clearer Future

The impact of Southwest Wheel’s transformation goes far beyond website improvements.

By investing in owned channels, customer retention strategies, and future-focused technology initiatives, the company has successfully strengthened its digital foundation.

Customers are increasingly engaging directly with Southwest Wheel rather than exclusively through marketplaces.

The company has built stronger repeat-purchase behavior.

Brand loyalty continues to grow.

And perhaps most importantly, Southwest Wheel has gained greater control over its future.

For a company that has survived and thrived for more than a century, that’s a significant achievement.

Why Trust Matters

Throughout every conversation with Darrick, one theme emerges again and again.

Trust.

Trust that recommendations are made in the company’s best interest.

Trust that new ideas are worth exploring.

Trust that when technology changes—as it inevitably will—the right people will be there to help navigate what’s next.

“Reliable and trustworthy,” Darrick says when asked to describe the Mode Effect team.

For Southwest Wheel, that trust has created a partnership that extends far beyond development projects or marketing initiatives.

It’s a relationship built around shared goals, honest conversations, and a willingness to continually evolve.

And for a 107-year-old company preparing for the next era of commerce, that’s exactly the kind of partnership that helps write the next chapter of success.