Key Takeaways:
BeautyMatter’s webinar on December 11, alongside partner Market Defense, TikTok x Amazon: How Trends Drive Transactions, arrived at a pivotal moment for the beauty industry. As TikTok Shop continues its rapid ascent and Amazon maintains its grip as the category’s most dominant e-commerce player, the relationship between discovery and conversion has never been more consequential.
Hosted by John Cafarelli, co-founder and President of BeautyMatter, the session marked a return to a conversation first explored last year on a BeautyMatter webinar. In the months since, the connective tissue between TikTok-fueled trend creation and Amazon transactions has only strengthened, even as TikTok Shop itself has emerged as a serious retail force.
Cafarelli opened by underscoring the scale of change. In 2025, TikTok Shop became the eighth-largest beauty retailer in the US, just behind Ulta Beauty, according to NielsenIQ. During the most recent Black Friday-Cyber Monday period, TikTok reported $500 million in sales, with beauty up 73.3% year over year (YoY), bringing its estimated beauty business to $2.3 billion. Despite this growth, consumers are still frequently leaving TikTok to complete purchases elsewhere—most often on Amazon.
To unpack why, Cafarelli was joined by Vanessa Kuykendall, Chief Engagement Officer at Market Defense; Dave Karlsven, SVP of Client Marketing and Data Science at Market Defense; and Alex Nisenzon, CEO of Charm.io.
Why TikTok Inspires but Amazon Closes
Kuykendall framed the behavior not as a failure of TikTok Shop, but as a reflection of consumer habits. “It really comes down to comfort and confidence," she said. “Consumers know Amazon. They trust it. They know their product is going to arrive in a day or two—and in some cities, now in just a few hours.”
Amazon’s logistical dominance remains unmatched, particularly in beauty. Kuykendall pointed out that 83% of US beauty shoppers participated in Prime Day this past July, reinforcing Amazon’s position as the default destination for replenishment, reviews, subscriptions, and repeat purchases. TikTok Shop, while evolving rapidly, still lacks some of the infrastructure—such as robust loyalty and subscription tools—that keep consumers coming back.
“TikTok Shop is only a couple of years old,” Kuykendall added. “Next year, we could be having a very different conversation.”
Cafarelli pushed the conversation further, asking why TikTok’s influence on Amazon appears more profound than that of other social platforms. Kuykendall traced it back to authenticity. “TikTok is winning because of the depth of connection between creators and their audiences,” she explained, referencing the platform's role in reshaping beauty discovery through formats like GRWM. “That kind of trust just converts differently.”
The TikTok Halo Effect
Nisenzon reinforced that perspective with data from Charm.io, explaining that TikTok Shop’s most successful beauty brands are not optimizing for on-platform sales alone. “It’s really a game of maximizing exposure,” he said. “The top-performing brands understand that TikTok creates demand that converts elsewhere.”
According to Charm.io’s data, the top beauty brands on TikTok Shop partner with an average of 5,000 creators annually, while the next tier works with fewer than 1,000. That difference is not incremental—it’s exponential.
“Tarte generated around 180 million views in October alone from roughly 9,000 creators,” Nisenzon said. “That kind of scale isn’t about managing individual relationships. It’s about tapping into thousands of micro-communities at once.”
Crucially, Nisenzon emphasized that TikTok-only brands face a steeper climb. “If your only chance to convert a customer is on TikTok Shop, the ROI equation becomes much harder,” he said. “Brands with Amazon or DTC distribution benefit from the halo effect TikTok creates.”
Navigating a Nonlinear Customer Journey
For brands, this dynamic complicates measurement. Karlsven explained that many brands still operate under a siloed mindset, expecting discovery and conversion to happen in the same place.
“In reality, the customer might see a product on TikTok, hear about it from a friend, encounter an ad somewhere else, and then go to Amazon to read reviews,” he said. “That breaks traditional attribution models.”
Too often, he added, brands conclude that TikTok isn’t performing because they’re only measuring direct conversions. “We’ve seen brands shut off campaigns that looked unprofitable on DTC, only to see Amazon sales immediately drop,” Karlsven said. “The campaign was working—you just weren’t seeing the full picture.”
The brands that win, he explained, are those that align themselves with consumer behavior rather than trying to force it. That means ensuring products are easy to find on Amazon when TikTok demand spikes, defending branded search terms, and maintaining consistency across pricing, imagery, and messaging.
“One of the biggest conversion killers is confusion,” Karlsven said. “If a customer comes to Amazon and can’t find the exact product they just saw on TikTok, you’ve lost them.”
Trends That Travel from TikTok to Amazon
Nisenzon shared several examples of TikTok-driven trends translating into measurable commerce. Korean skincare has emerged as one of the fastest-growing categories on TikTok Shop, with views up more than 500% YoY and nearly 4 billion total views. He noted that this wave is less about individual ingredients and more about routines and outcomes.
Vanilla and broader gourmand fragrance trends are similarly gaining momentum. Products with “vanilla” in the title generated over $118 million in TikTok Shop sales, even as average prices increased. “What’s interesting,” Nisenzon said, “is that consumers are still willing to pay more.”
Kuykendall added that this signals a more educated fragrance consumer. “Younger shoppers aren’t looking for a single signature scent,” she said. “They’re building fragrance wardrobes. They’re layering. They care about projection and longevity.”
Hair tools, particularly thermal brushes, offer another example of TikTok’s ability to create categories from scratch. Brands like Wavytalk didn’t just ride a trend—they named and defined it. “They trained consumers on what to search for,” Nisenzon said, noting that “thermal brush” became a dominant Amazon search term after gaining traction on TikTok.
Looking Ahead
As the discussion turned toward the future, Cafarelli asked whether generative AI and emerging “GEO” strategies could eventually overtake TikTok as a discovery engine. The panel was skeptical.
“I don’t think TikTok is going anywhere,” Karlsven said. “There’s an entertainment and human element that AI can’t replicate—at least not yet.”
Nisenzon agreed, noting that while AI will play a growing role in research and decision support, influence still hinges on trust. “Unless AI avatars start building real communities, it’s hard to see them replacing human creators,” he said.
Kuykendall pointed to checkout speed and AI-curated routines as the next battleground. “Whoever can make shopping faster and more intuitive—whether through virtual bundles or personalized regimens—is going to win.”
The Takeaway
TikTok and Amazon are not competing platforms in beauty;, they are deeply interconnected. TikTok creates cultural momentum, education, and desire at scale. Amazon captures that demand through trust, infrastructure, and conversion.
For brands, the mandate is clear: Stop chasing linear attribution and start designing for how consumers actually shop. Those that do will be best positioned to turn trends into transactions, wherever they happen.
