Hey @nican, thanks for reaching out to ask about merch! Like @Subguide said, the Merch for Membership program is not a storefront but a fun, extra benefit for your patrons.
Our Merch for Memership program is set so patrons recieve your merch after 3 months of patronage. And the Merch Loyalty program, will provide your patrons new merch every 3 months - for a total of 4 items a year.
Creators are absolutely free to send merch to their patrons on their own, in their own timelines. Though the benefit of using Merch for Membership or Merch Loyalty through Patreon is so creators don’t have to keep track of loyal patrons, milestones, and go through the motion of creating, collecting, and shipping the items out. Patreon will take care of it all for you.
Hope this helps provide some clarity!
If you haven’t already seen, we have a Patreon Community Discord Server where creators can connect with each other. We have a channel specifically for merch, where creators can share their experiences with you. 