How can I properly sort thousands of products numerically?

[sweetstash]

I have thousands of products that need to be sorted properly numerically.  Example, I sell beads and threads.  I have searched all over to find a solution for this and cannot.  Isn't there a proper numeric sort?  So now when I have products such as 01, 02, 03, 101, 300, 3027, 3325, 3787... the only way it will sort properly is if I make all products 4 digits.  Which means I would have to go into a bunch of products and make them 0001, 0002, 0100, 0434 to sort correctly.  First off, the customer is not looking for 0001, they are looking for 01.  This is a problem for my sales.  Spreadsheets have had this option to sort numerically forever...  and basically our product database is a spreadsheet.  Is this not an option?  Do I have to change thousands of products for them to display properly?  And even then it isn't what the customer is looking for.

[sweetstash]

I cannot believe this has not come up before with a resolution.  I have found other questions pertaining to this, with no answer or solution.  Can anyone guide me on this?