Importing from China - new business. Experiences/shipping/any advice welcome!

[Domino07]

I am at the start of setting up a new ecommerce business as I have found a product in China which is not available here for a competitive cost.

My main obstacle at the moment is trying to research and find the best available shipping costs and excellent reliability by air (for a quicker delivery service to end customer) and then potentially sea shipping should it take off and I pre order a container load or maybe less to come over by sea. I have a product line of 60 products so getting them all over by air in not viable at the moment as the outlay would be crazy and i cant afford it. The first quote I have from my China supplier for the air cost is 75% more than the product itself and the websites I have tried so far which have generated quotes are double that.

Each product is custom made to order, hence I am looking at the more expensive cost of doing it by air at the moment as I don't want the customer to wait weeks for their delivery.

Each item will weigh the same and be the same size so there is not really any variance in my product in terms of shipping costs (apart from each one has a very different design).

Does anyone have experience of this kind of thing and what to look out for or any bad experiences in importing goods and also any good experiences with any shipping handlers or companies that can help with this kind of thing?

Will be looking for lots more advise on website set up/photography shoots for the products and photoshop experts but for now this is my first challenge as I need to get some really competitive shipping costs to make this all viable.

Any advice appreciated!