Positioning Dayo Women for Comfortable Growth in The Loungewear Industry

Yolanda White boldly became her own boss as a business owner.

The founder and CEO of apparel company Dayo Women gained the courage to make the audacious transition after working for more than 20 years as a leading executive managing billion-dollar brands across the cosmetics, automotive, food, and beverage industries.

White launched the loungewear and leisurewear company Dayo Women after being unable to find what she desired in the space. “I created Dayo for women who wanted to find themselves at home in comfort and style that could be achieved with ease.” White is leveraging her vast professional experience to change the game for women in loungewear.

In reimagining the loungewear category, White rolled out the Dayo Women line in 2018. The Atlanta-based company sells roughly 40 different styles in several distinct colors and sizes, including wrap tops, pant sets, robe dresses, ponchos, mini dresses, bra bands, and accessories like scarves and belts. She focuses on providing customers with innovative styles and affordable pricing, with items ranging from $25–$200.

Creating a niche to uplift women

“With Dayo, you get great value because you can wear your styles many ways for multiple occasions, including entertaining at home, working remotely, for vacations, and on the go,” White maintains.

Moreover, she launched her business to inspire women and deepen their self-love. White says she will raise brand awareness by serving as a featured vendor for Amazon’s women-owned business storefront during Women’s History Month. When speaking of her partnership with the online retailer, she says: “I have truly enjoyed working with the Amazon team, and the commitment that they have had over the last year has allowed Dayo to grow from zero sales to selling product almost daily.”

Now, White is taking steps to position Dayo Women for expansion within the nearly $6 billion U.S. loungewear sector, which is expected to double in size by 2030. She offers women additional support through self-love tools, including a blog, journal, and cards.

Conquering challenges while seeking new investment

Getting Dayo Women on the racks came with myriad obstacles. Although the fearless entrepreneur has been able to innovate design in the loungewear segment, she was forced to bootstrap her business with a $350,000 initial investment of her own funds.

“I still encounter the same challenges of other women-owned businesses as it relates to obtaining capital and distribution opportunities to effectively scale the business,” she adds. To achieve scale, White seeks seed money to expand her team, add digital capabilities, and increase inventory to supply more retailers. She maintains: “This growth will allow us to continue to expand our distribution model with more local boutiques, deepen our product offerings with Amazon, and continue to grow with more department stores.”

With revenue of $300,000, White says most of Dayo Women’s annual growth has been organic since its inception. Maintains White: “The growth has come from many areas. They include increasing customer demand to buy loungewear, greater distribution, and over 40% of sales coming from repeat customers. Women love the brand, and Black women have been a huge support of our growth.”

Capitalizing on the value of branding expertise

Her strong corporate background serving in several management positions at soft drink giant Coca-Cola has proven extremely helpful in her entrepreneurial pursuits. Having been recognized in 2011 by BLACK ENTERPRISE as one of the nation’s top Black executives in advertising and marketing when she served as vice president of brand management for Powerade (Coca-Cola), White says her experiences taught her how to take an idea and build a brand—a skill that enabled her to make strategic choices for her company in key areas such as product portfolio, creative development, forecasting, consumer targeting, and “where to play and invest.”

Flourishing with Amazon

So, what marketing approach will White take to sustain growth? She plans to lure more customers this year by buying digital ads, launching email and text campaigns, boosting social media content, and offering as many as six activations.

Uniting with Amazon has provided Dayo Women an incremental revenue stream as it introduces its entry-level product for the brand to a new set of customers, White says. “We focus on foundation items and self-love products to introduce the premise of the brand to Prime shoppers.”

White emphasized that Amazon has been “an amazing partner,” providing her company with the opportunity to broaden Dayo Women’s national brand exposure and reach.

She also benefits from participating in Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator (BBA), a $150 million program commitment over four years geared to help build sustainable growth opportunities for Black-owned businesses. “The program has made it easier for us to become a viable vendor in Amazon’s store.”

White says her five-year growth plan calls for increasing annual revenue to $5 million. She aims to achieve that goal by strategically focusing on expanding product offerings sold directly to consumers as she bolsters collaborations with Amazon, wholesalers, and retailers. “We know more than women love our styles, so there are new consumer segments to reach while doubling down on our core consumer base of women to offer more styles, colors, and sizes to extend the occasion of lounge and leisurewear, she says. “We are optimistic about the future of Dayo given the growth that our small and mighty team has been able to achieve while overcoming economic challenges like COVID-19 in a small amount of time.”