How diverse and female-led small businesses find warehouse space [Video]

There are roughly 718,000 direct-to-consumer e-commerce merchants in the U.S. with less than $5 million in annualized revenue, and growing at roughly 15% per year.

That’s the target customer of flex warehouse (also known as co-warehousing) company Saltbox, which tells CNBC it is seeing continued growth in warehouse demand from small and medium-size businesses.

“E-commerce is the predominant driver of this demand,” said Tyler Scriven, CEO and co-founder of Saltbox. “There’s a massive market opportunity here to serve their warehouse needs.”

Nearly 75% of Saltbox’s 700-plus business customers are led by women or people of color; more than 70% are e-commerce companies selling their physical goods direct to consumers in categories from fashion to tech, home goods, health and beauty.

“Our economy is increasingly driven by logistics, our retail economy in particular, and that works in the favor of large companies,” Scriven said.

Warehouse demand is far outpacing supply in the current market and driving up prices.

Scriven encountered the logistics challenges entrepreneurs face …