A few weeks ago, the independent hardware world went through a sudden period of uncertainty. Following ownership changes and extended outages at Tindie, many makers found themselves locked out of their storefronts, unable to fulfill orders or even access their own product listings. When the site eventually came back online, many sellers were still dealing with delayed payouts and an uncertain future.
Many makers took this opportunity to try Lectronz, sometimes just as a "backup solution". They took advantage of our 1-click Tindie migration tool to import their catalog to Lectronz and get up and running quickly. The migration tool remains available for anyone who still wants to move their Tindie catalog to Lectronz.
We managed to rise to the challenge. Many of those stores have stayed. What began as a backup storefront has become a permanent home for a lot of independent hardware creators.
The Migration by the Numbers
We wanted to share some data from our database regarding how this influx has reshaped the platform.
- 129 new independent stores have successfully migrated their catalogs.
- 956 orders have already been processed and shipped by these new stores alone.
- 0% downtime occurred on our Ruby on Rails infrastructure during the traffic and transaction spikes.
The order volume is the most encouraging metric here. Onboarding sellers is one thing, but seeing nearly a thousand orders flow through smoothly suggests that buyers followed the makers as well.
Makers from Everywhere
While Lectronz is based in Greece, this migration dispelled the idea that we are mainly a European marketplace. The 129 new storefronts represent 31 countries across six continents.
Here is the geographic distribution of where our new creators are engineering and shipping from:
| Region / Country | Stores Joined |
|---|---|
| North America (United States, Canada) | 34 |
| United Kingdom | 17 |
| Western & Central Europe (Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium) | 28 |
| Southern & Eastern Europe (Italy, Spain, Romania, Latvia, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Ukraine) | 20 |
| Asia-Pacific & Oceania (China, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan) | 22 |
| Northern Europe (Sweden, Finland, Denmark) | 5 |
| Other (Brazil, Turkey) | 3 |
Seeing the United States (29 stores) and the United Kingdom (17 stores) lead the numbers has been quite validating. For non-EU creators, navigating international customs, IOSS imports, and changing VAT logic has become a massive administrative headache. We built Lectronz to handle much of that tax complexity directly at checkout, and it suggests that independent sellers are looking for infrastructure that removes those barriers.
Spotlighting a Few New Arrivals
The variety of hardware coming onto the platform has been very interesting.
These new top sellers who found immediate success on Lectronz illustrate this diversity:
- TheHogNL, creator of the HeishaMon communication PCB for communication with Panasonic Aquarea heat pumps.
- The Sonocotta store, offering a catalog of 29 products focused on smart-home hardware.
- TRON CASES, producing high-quality custom 3D-printed enclosures for electronics.
Why the Transition Worked
We’ve been listening closely to the feedback coming into our Discord and support emails during this transition. Aside from basic platform uptime, creators who moved to Lectronz highlighted three practical features that they loved:
- Fast payouts: Quick payouts via Stripe, removing the frustration of arbitrary disbursement windows.
- Tax handling: Our checkout calculates state taxes or VAT based on the location of the buyer, as configured by each seller. This includes IOSS for imports into the EU or tariffs for the US.
- Direct developer support: Feature requests and bug reports go straight to the people building the platform through GitHub and Discord—not a corporate support queue.
Looking Ahead
Lectronz remains a lean, developer-led platform.
We continue to keep up with regulatory changes. As of July 1st, a customs duty applies to small packages imported into the EU and Lectronz already supports the new duty directly in shipping rates.
To the 129 creators who placed their confidence in us this month: thank you for trusting us with your shops and your great projects!
Let's keep building.
A Note on the Raw Data
For the curious out there, here is the raw country distribution hash straight from our analytics:
{"United States"=>29, "UK"=>17, "Germany"=>9, "France"=>8, "China"=>6, "Italy"=>5, "Canada"=>5, "India"=>4, "Spain"=>4, "Netherlands"=>4, "Australia"=>4, "Austria"=>3, "New Zealand"=>3, "Sweden"=>3, "Switzerland"=>3, "Romania"=>2, "South Korea"=>2, "Latvia"=>2, "Poland"=>2, "Brazil"=>2, "Bulgaria"=>2, "Czechia"=>1, "Thailand"=>1, "Turkey"=>1, "Hungary"=>1, "Indonesia"=>1, "Japan"=>1, "Finland"=>1, "Belgium"=>1, "Denmark"=>1, "Ukraine"=>1}