If you’ve ever tried to get specific answers from Tmall, you probably remember pulling your hair out in the process.

Tmall’s API documentation seems great on the surface, but there’s a tough approval process basically barring most people from gaining access. If you do get #access, you realize much of the documentation is outdated.

Planning events involves working with a lot of platform #regulations. The newest & best event notices often don’t even show up in Tmall’s backend dashboard.

Most important communications between #Tmall & merchants take place in chat groups on DingTalk, Alibaba’s own messenger.

There’s an insider’s #chat group for just about everything… and each has a Tmall representative running the group.

The key is that you need to be an #insider to gain access to the information & the people.

BUT… the real mystery is that things work just fine.

A lot of things happen last minute, especially in event planning. When communication is kept informal and instantaneous through chat groups, both platforms & operators jump to action quickly with very little lead time.

While there is definitely room for #improvement, perhaps this style of communication is a necessity in such a fast moving and dynamic environment.

What do you think?