Thoughts on a business model 💵 : subscription or e-commerce

Hi makers, I need your advice on something. I've been thinking why not use my cross platform app as a sell funnel for a a e-commerce website : users support the development via my branded merch. Or I can also do an hybrid approach (might be complex to setup) : buy a merch or printable and get X% off your subscription and vice versa. Of course I've a marketing strategy to drive traffic to my website too. Do you have some thoughts on this or know an app that has this kind of business model?
Btw I'm making a set of tools for facilitate the learning of Japanese.