As you know, new map products submitted to the Avenza Map Store are subject to a map review process that can take anywhere from 2 to 10 days to complete. Why does it take so long? We get that question a lot. It’s because reviewing your map involves more than verifying quality and accuracy.

When a buyer purchases a map or bundle from the Avenza Map Store, the financial transaction is managed by either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store depending on the device used by the buyer. To facilitate this, each product is assigned an identifier called a SKU, which is submitted to both app stores to go through each of their own approval process. Sometimes this is the step that slows down the process of seeing your map become ready for sale in the Avenza Map Store.

App Store Procedures

One of the key pieces of information sent along with the SKU is the price of your product. This is necessary to ensure that when a user finds the map in the Map Store, the correct price is displayed and that the purchase revenue is allocated correctly to your account. For every publisher account, there is a one-time-only verification step needed for each pricing tier utilized by the app store. For example, the first time you submit a product at a Tier 1 price, ($0.99 USD), we will need to submit the price to Apple and Google. Subsequent products listed within that same pricing tier do not need to run through the submission process again.

Timelines

Our Map Store Team gets the ball rolling on the submission of Apple and Google SKUs while we perform the rest of our internal map review process. Generally, we start reviewing within two business days of you submitting your map for review. This means the SKU submission will also occur within two business days of your product being submitted for review. Google is fairly quick at approving new SKUs, generally doing so within a couple of hours. Apple typically takes a little longer but is usually approved within three business days. However, in some cases we see Apple taking 5 to 7 business days to approve. While we wait for confirmation from both of the app stores, your map product will remain in the ‘In Review’ status on your publisher site.

So, it may seem to take a long time for your map to be reviewed and approved for sale in the Avenza Map Store but there’s a good reason for it—we want to ensure that you are properly compensated for your sales! As soon as we have confirmation that the new SKU has been approved for both platforms we can approve your product for the Map Store. Rest assured, that the process will be quicker the next time if you submit products at the same pricing tier. During the review process, feel free to reach out to us anytime and we will provide you with an update on the status of your map’s review!