This depends primarily on two factors: your available capital and your ability to manage demand-supply variability.
Capital consideration: Every SKU you add locks up cash in inventory. If capital is limited, starting lean protects your cash flow and reduces the risk of dead stock.
Market and demand consideration: If you’re entering a new market with limited demand visibility, I’d recommend starting with 25-50 SKUs. This gives you enough range to test what resonates without overcommitting capital or complicating fulfillment.
Category depth matters too: “Home decor” is broad — wall art, lighting, textiles, tableware, furniture accents, etc. Rather than spreading thin across many categories, I’d suggest picking 2-3 categories to start and going deeper within them (a tighter SKU range per category), then expanding into new categories once you have sales data showing what’s actually working.
As you scale, let real demand data guide expansion — add SKUs where you see repeat interest or high margin, rather than guessing broadly upfront.
Happy to do a quick call if you want help thinking through category selection or initial inventory planning specifically for your market.
