coasters.ai
We strive to be completely transparent in how we operate, while having the big ambitious goal of raising $1,000,000 for charity.
how we create our coasters
The first step is coming up with a prompt. We use ChatGPT to come up with a list of descriptions for various graphics. Something like, "generate a list of 10 physical descriptions for crazy planets that are nothing like earth."
We read through the list and choose one to share with Midjourney AI. This is done by talking to the AI on Discord, by asking it to "/imagine" a specific scene. So we ask it to imagine the prompt generated by ChatGPT.
Midjourney AI proceeds to generate four versions of it's interpretation of the prompt. We pick our favourite and then have the image upscaled into a more useful size/version.
From there, the final version of the graphic is uploaded into the Printful app, which is a direct integration with our manufacturers, who make and ship our coasters. When customers purchase a coaster, Printful automatically receives the request and fulfills the order on our behalf.
Once the graphic is uploaded, and details about it's respective product are entered, the app automatically creates the coaster as a product in our Shopify store/website. We then generate extra product mockups, and upload them manually as additional product images.
Customers can then purchase the coasters directly from our website.
All payments are processed through PayPal, exclusively. Customers may purchase coasters without a PayPal account (there is an option to proceed "as a guest"). We also pay for our products from Printful, with PayPal, which helps keep things simple accounting-wise.
Midjourney is an independent research lab exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species.
ChatGPT is a sibling model to InstructGPT, which is trained to follow an instruction in a prompt and provide a detailed response.
Printful is an on-demand printing and fulfillment company that helps people turn their ideas into brands and products.
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide. The all-in-one commerce platform to start, run, and grow a business.
PayPal is the faster, safer way to send and receive money or make an online payment. PayPal Giving Fund Canada helps people support their favourite charities online.
The easiest way to add sustainability and social impact to your store in only a few minutes. Make an impact. Connect customers to your values by teaming up with causes.
Stephen's World offers professionally crafted Shopify stores; specializing in platform migrations & complete store setups.
how we make money
All prices are in Canadian dollars (CAD).
Printful charges us $6.95 per coaster. We're currently selling all of our coasters for $20 each. That gives us a gross profit of $13.05 per coaster sold ... but then PayPal charges us up to 4% of the order total (depending on where the customer is from and their payment method), plus $0.30 per order, for handling payments. We're able to pass on the shipping portion of PayPal's fees to the customer, but the product and tax portion of their fee comes out of our profits ... we gross ~$11.95 per coaster (depending on the tax % collected). For orders of 4 or more coasters, we make an additional $0.70 per coaster; as Printful offers us a bulk pricing discount.
We do not aim to make any profit on shipping charges. Shipping rates are provided by Printful directly, and vary depending on the customer's country and shipping preference.
Canada - Flat Rate
First item - $8.45
Additional items - $1.35 each
United States - Flat Rate
First item - $4.99
Additional items - $0.95 each
United Kingdom - Flat Rate
First item - $5.29
Additional items - $1.15 each
As mentioned above, we add on PayPal's transaction fee of 4% + $0.30 per order, to our shipping costs. This means we essentially break-even (or profit slightly) on the shipping costs, as we charge the customer a blended rate of what Printful and PayPal charges us.
we donate $10 for every coaster sold
We've partnered with Virtue Impact to automate donations via PayPal's Giving Fund, which hosts a directory of charitable organizations that we're able to choose from to support. We currently support three Canadian charities, centering around helping sick and impoverished children.
Make A Wish Foundation of Canada
Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada
World Vision Canada
Virtue Impact charges us ~$0.50 per order, to automate the donation process for us. We donate $10 to charity for every coaster sold. So of the ~$11.95 in gross profit we generate from each coaster sale, we make around ~$1.45 in net profits per coaster sold (varies slightly depending on if multiple coasters are purchased in the same order). This means that over 80% of our gross profits go to charity, which is something we're very proud of.
Our customers are able to select which charity to support when they're making their purchase, giving them more control over where the donation goes. If the customer doesn't select a charity when purchasing, we will automatically choose one of the charities, to try and keep donations balanced.
dropshipping with AI designs + charity
Everything is as automated as possible, where the only things we have to do on our end are: continuing to add new coasters, and finding ways to market the store to potential customers.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about our business, and we hope you enjoy your coasters!
(too long, didn't read)
We get description prompts from ChatGPT, then have Midjourney imagine interpretations of the prompts, before exporting the results to Printful, and then listing them as coaster products on our Shopify website, so that we can sell them using PayPal, to make a profit of $1.45 - $2.15 per coaster, with Virtue Impact automating donations to our chosen charities of $10 per coaster sold.
