Mopar Repair Connect
Mopar Repair Connect is an auto parts ordering system designed from the ground up to streamline the workflow between Wholesale Distributors (WDs) and Mopar dealers. The project focused on transforming the manual parts ordering process by digitalizing order placement, tracking, and management, while also enhancing communication. These metrics underscore the project’s scale and significant impact:
Wholesale Distributors (WDs) Customers
Countries Prepare to Lunch (US & Canada)
Total parts value
Annual aftermarket profits
As the UI/UX designer, I drove the end-to-end design process, from conducting user research and defining solutions to creating high-fidelity UI designs and enhancing the design system. My focus was on simplifying the ordering process for Wholesale Distributors (WDs).
6 months
1 UI/UX Designer (Me)
1 Design Manager
1 Data analysis
7 Developers
1 Copywriter
2 Account Manager
Interactive prototypes
Design System & Guidelines
* To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mopar.
The Problem
Mopar, a leading automotive OEM, aims to grow its aftermarket business through wholesale redistribution but is constrained by outdated processes.
Currently, WDs currently rely on Excel spreadsheets and email exchanges for parts orders, leading to frequent errors, delays, and excessive back-and-forth communication. This inefficiency leaves WDs frustrated and unable to meet their operational demands.
As a result, Mopar faces growing complaints, rising customer service costs, and the risk of losing key wholesale customers—jeopardizing its $200 million aftermarket profit goal.
With the industry rapidly shifting toward digital solutions since 2020, modernizing the ordering process is both critical and urgent to staying competitive.
The project goal is to digitalize parts ordering for WDs, improving efficiency, strengthening partnerships, and securing Mopar’s growth and competitiveness in the aftermarket sector.
Research
Through interviews with 3 WDs and 5 account team members, I analyzed how WDs evaluate, select, and order parts. This research provided insights into their buying behaviors, workflows, and processes, as well as the pain points they face with the current manual system.
WDs are Strategic Bulk Purchasers Driven by Sales Data:
Current Ordering Process
These pain points highlight the significant inefficiencies and frustrations WDs encounter due to the reliance on manual and outdated processes.
1
Pain Point: Manual Data Handling Burden
WDs spend hours transferring thousands of parts between Excel spreadsheets, leading to frequent errors and costly corrections, preventing them from focusing on strategic work.
2
Pain Point: Limited Real-Time Information
Without real-time stock and pricing data in Excel, WDs make bulk purchase decisions blindly, leading to order mistakes and missed promotions that impact profit margins.
3
Pain Point: Communication Inefficiencies
Email-based ordering leads to 2-3 day processing delays with scattered communications between WDs and dealers. Emails are easily overlooked during back-and-forth discussions, preventing timely order resolution and disrupting fulfillment timelines.
4
Pain Point: Lack of Trust in On-time Order Fulfillment
WDs lack confidence in order fulfillment due to unreliable delivery schedules and insufficient communication. Without transparent order tracking, they struggle to manage inventory effectively, leading to stockout fears and rushed orders that increase operational costs.
Design Strategies
I played a key role in defining the design goal and success metrics, synthesizing research insights to identify WDs' pain points and recommend improvements. I facilitated discussions with the Account and Development teams, and together we defined four key features to address WDs' challenges, balancing user needs with technical feasibility for an effective solution.
Goal & Success Metrics
Our goal is to improve parts ordering efficiency by simplifying workflows, enhancing transparency, and empowering WDs with data-driven tools.
Key Feature: Centralized Order Management
Provides a centralized view of tasks and order metrics, helping WDs stay organized and track workflows efficiently. This improves overall operational efficiency and reduces time spent navigating multiple systems or tools.
Key Feature: Guided Order Workflow
The product offers flexible purchasing options, including browsing and selecting parts in the database, uploading parts lists for bulk orders, and cloning historical orders for repeat purchases, to support diverse workflows.
Key Feature: Real-Time Parts Database
Real-time product listings display current stock, pricing, and promotions, while parts validation prevents over-ordering, enabling informed bulk purchases, reducing errors, and ensuring accurate fulfillment.
Key Feature: Order-Based Communication
Scattered email exchanges were replaced with an integrated messaging system tied to individual orders, simplifying issue tracking, maintaining transparency in order status and communication, and strengthening trust between WDs and dealers.
The Challenge
This question stayed with me throughout our research, nagging at the back of my mind. As I dove deeper into understanding their workflow, the answer became clear—and it revealed a design challenge that would shape everything that followed.
WDs operate in a complex and demanding environment, managing massive datasets across multiple dimensions:
Unique parts need to be searched and reviewed across a massive database.
Orders processed weekly, often involving lengthy approval and review cycles.
Parts per order, each requiring stock and quantities validation.
WD’s Order File
Before submitting an order, WDs spend hours reviewing and confirming details. Excel remains their go-to tool because of its flexibility—it lets them manipulate data instantly, save progress incrementally, and edit orders with ease.
This insight was pivotal. We realized that simply creating a digital system wouldn’t be enough; it had to retain the flexibility WDs valued in Excel to ensure adoption.
Key Feature: Drafts
To achieve this, we added the Draft Orders feature, allowing WDs to save, revisit, and adjust orders without starting over. This reduces the stress of finalizing orders in one sitting, balancing the flexibility of Excel with the efficiency of a modern ordering platform.
Parts Ordering Flow
By introducing the Draft concept to address the challenge of managing massive datasets with flexibility, we developed a streamlined digital workflow that integrates our key features into a unified ordering experience. At its core, the process follows three main stages: Create Order, Save as Draft, and Submit Order - each stage designed to simplify data handling and validation while giving WDs complete control over their order creation process.
Core Ordering Process
Order Creation Flow Deep Dive
To simplify database architecture, the development team first proposed merging all paths into a single interface, pre-filling the manual adding form with uploaded or cloned data.
However, analyzing WDs' order files revealed a critical workflow issue. Orders contained complex information about parts including categories, quantity, price and more that needed WD’s careful review before modifications. Forcing users directly into a search/edit interface containing all available part data would disrupt their natural workflow and increase cognitive load and error risk.
Dev Proposal: Single Interface Approach
I designed three distinct yet technically integrated flows that kept complexity behind the scenes. Though this required more development effort, it delivered a clearer experience that matched how WDs actually work. For upload and cloned orders, users could validate their data before editing, while manual adding remained streamlined for individual part selection.
Understanding the dev team's database architecture actually helped me shape the information architecture within each interface - what started as a technical debate evolved into valuable collaboration. Looking back, I would strengthen future decisions with quantitative usability testing, measuring task completion times and error rates to provide metrics-driven support for design choices.
3 Order Creation Flows - Supporting Manual, Upload, and Clone Tasks
Key Feature 1
1-1: Instant Visibility into Order Activities
WDs faced constant risk of missing updates while managing orders across fragmented emails and Excel files. The dashboard integrates all critical information - such as drafts needing attention, orders awaiting review, and new notifications - eliminating the need to switch between files and reducing the chance of oversight. This streamlined workflow has transformed order processing efficiency, significantly reducing the time WDs spend tracking order status while quickly guide them start on their task.
1-2: Order Management
With WDs managing multiple complex orders weekly, tracking progress and gathering order information was time-consuming and fragmented. The order listing provides filtering and sorting capabilities, enabling WDs to quickly identify and act on priority orders. Order details unify parts information, dealer info, notes, and tracking in one place, eliminating context switching and speeding up order resolution with dealers.
Order Listing
Order Details
Key Feature 2
2-1:Manual Adding for Small and Customized Orders
WDs rely on part numbers or categories to find specific items. Navigating a vast database can feel overwhelming, and the risk of selecting incorrect parts adds stress. Real-time product listings provide updated stock, pricing, and promotions, combined with intelligent search and filtering to ensure accuracy. A table configurator allows dealers to tailor displayed parts data, reducing information overwhelm.
2-2: Upload File for Bulk Orders and File Migration
For WDs managing large orders or saving Excel files into the database, users can upload spreadsheets containing multiple parts in a single step. Built-in validation feedback highlights errors, such as missing or invalid part numbers, enabling users to resolve issues before submission.
Key Feature 3
WDs faced two critical challenges when managing work-in-progress orders: the need to handle large volumes of data flexibly, and the constant fear of making costly mistakes. In current ordering spreadsheet, a single error in quantity or pricing could lead to rejected orders and days of delay, creating a stressful ordering experience.
3-1: Maintaining Flexibility with Draft System
The Draft system transforms this experience by providing WDs with the flexibility to save parts to existing drafts or create new ones. Just like in Excel, they can now work on orders incrementally, manage multiple requests simultaneously, and handle changes without starting over. This preserves their familiar workflow while adding digital efficiency.
Save parts to existing drafts or create new drafts
Drafts Listing
3-2: Enhancing Accuracy Through Smart Validation
Beyond flexibility, WDs needed confidence in order accuracy. The draft detail page now features proactive parts validation, automatically checking quantities against minimum stock requirements. This allows WDs to catch and fix errors before submission, reducing order delays and errors.
Save parts to existing drafts or create new drafts
3-3: Building Confidence with Final Review
The order review page serves as a final safety net, giving WDs peace of mind before submission. With all prices, quantities, and requirements validated, they can submit orders with confidence, knowing they've prevented potential errors that could delay fulfillment.
Together, these solutions have transformed the ordering process from anxiety-inducing to confidence-building. WDs can now manage large orders efficiently while preventing costly mistakes, leading to faster fulfillment times and reduced stress.
Submit Order
Key Feature 4
Order communications were scattered across emails, making it difficult to track discussions and causing delayed responses. The integrated messaging system ties all communications to specific orders, allowing WDs to reference exact orders, track order status, view history, and communicate with dealers in context. This centralized approach has improved issue resolution time and built confidence in timely order fulfillment.
