Every platform has a review. Most delays are not conspiracies. They are a missing security questionnaire, a broken OAuth redirect, or a listing that promises a feature the app does not have.
Do this before you write code
Read the current partner or app review docs. Security, data, branding, support SLA, sometimes a paid partner tier. If you cannot pass it, do not promise sales a date.
Put the review window on the project plan as a real task, not a hope. AppExchange is not a weekend. A Shopify app review is shorter and still not instant.
What reviewers bounce
Claims you cannot demo. Scopes you do not need. A privacy policy that 404s. A support inbox nobody watches. Sandbox credentials that expired. These are not hard. They are easy, and they are why reviews slip a month.
Listed vs visible
Some marketplaces put new apps in a cellar until they have installs or a featured slot. Ask the partner manager what “listed” means in practice. If the answer is “you will be on page twelve,” your distribution thesis just changed. Plan installs from your own customers first.
You are the project manager of review
Engineering ships the build. You ship the packet: screenshots, test account, answers, the listing copy. If you treat review as “their problem,” it will sit.
Certification is a gate, not a strategy. Pass it. Then go get the first twenty real users.