You already have an audience
A club, a school, a community, a mailing list. You bring the traffic, so you may as well keep the margin that comes with it.
Comparison
Marketplace or official store.
Both sell print-on-demand merch. What they don't share is who owns the customer, the brand and the margin. Here is the difference, plainly.
The real difference
They are not the same trade
A marketplace is a shop selling thousands of people's designs to strangers who happened to pass by. You upload a graphic, it handles the rest and pays you a commission. An official store is your shop, in your name, where your community comes because it is yours. You set the price, you keep the difference, and you know who bought.
Point by point
Who owns what
| On a marketplace | On your official store | |
|---|---|---|
| The customer | Belongs to the platform. You don't know who they are. | Yours. You have their email, their history, their size. |
| The brand | Theirs. Your name is a line in a catalogue. | Yours. The address, the colours and the logo are yours. |
| The price | They set it, often with discounts you absorb. | You set it. It doesn't move without you. |
| The margin | A commission, typically 10 to 20% of the sale price. | The difference between your cost and your price. You choose it. |
| Competition | Your pieces sit next to everyone else's. | None. Your store shows only you. |
| Traffic | They bring some, and that is their real service. | Yours: your members, your followers, your list. |
Let's be honest
When a marketplace is the right choice
If you don't have a community yet, a marketplace brings you buyers you would not have had. That is its trade, and it does it well. An illustrator starting out will sell more there than on a store nobody knows. The question isn't which is better, but whether people already follow you. If they do, sending them elsewhere is expensive: you pay a commission on traffic you brought yourself.
The other case
When an official store wins
Your name matters
An organisation's merch is worth something because it is official. A line in someone else's catalogue does not say the same thing as an address in your name.
You want to know who buys
To follow up, to plan the next run, to understand. On a marketplace that information never reaches you.
You sell in runs
A back-to-school drop, an anniversary piece, a pre-order with a minimum. A marketplace sells continuously, not in campaigns.
site.nav.faq
What we get asked
- Is tknp.io a marketplace?
- No, and that is deliberate. There is no shared catalogue where organisations compete: each has its own store, at its own address, with its own products and prices. We sell nothing on your behalf and we bring no traffic — your community does.
- Can I do both?
- Yes, and many do. A marketplace to be found by strangers, an official store to sell to the people already following you. Two audiences, not two competitors.
- How much more do I make?
- It depends on the price you set. On a 15% commission, a tee sold at €30 pays you €4.50. On your own store the same tee costs you around €13: you keep €17. The gap is what you stop paying for traffic you brought yourself.
- What if nobody comes to my store?
- That is the real risk, and it should be said. An official store brings no traffic by itself: it converts the traffic you have. Without an audience, a marketplace will serve you better, at least at first.
- Do I need money up front?
- No. Nothing is made before it is bought, there is no stock and no minimum, and opening a store costs nothing. The only investment is the time to create the pieces.
Let's start
Your community deserves an address
If people already follow you, open the store that carries your name. You set the prices, you keep the margin, and you know who buys.