When customers decide to setup their first on-line storefront they worry about all the time it will take for them to load their store inventory “it’ll take weeks to get all this stuff loaded”. The truth is, that is largely a waste of time.
Many products are not suited to on-line sales. Popularity, shipping related issues and competition from other retailers all have an impact. Our recommendation is that you launch with no more than 50 and as few as 20 products. These need to be selected as “the most likely to succeed” in their category. Choose the most popular sellers and make it easy for people to get them.
The marketplace is going to tell you quickly if you are right and you can replace one of your 50 with another until you get the right mix. Customers will understand if everything you sell is not on-line initially but you will be satisfying their desire to purchase the most popular.