#Communication is an absolute mess.
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 If you do get #access, you realize much of the documentation is outdated.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?