Semona Pillay, Ilse Struweg
Abstract
With TikTok driving $31.7 billion in global beauty sales and emerging as the fastest-growing social platform in South Africa (reaching 23.4 million users in 2025), beauty brands face exceptional opportunities to build consumer brand relationships and loyalty through strategic social media engagement. Using the Social Media Brand Engagement model, this study investigates how TikTok beauty brand engagement influences brand loyalty in South Africa’s $6 billion beauty market. A quantitative research design using 214 questionnaire responses analysed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and SMART-PLS examined relationships between TikTok brand involvement, communication, engagement, relationship quality, word-of-mouth, and brand loyalty. TikTok beauty brand involvement and brand communication significantly influenced brand engagement, positively impacting relationship quality. Brand relationship quality drove word-of-mouth, which significantly influenced brand loyalty. Brand engagement mediated relationships between involvement and communication with relationship quality. Beauty brands can leverage TikTok’s algorithm-driven engagement through authentic influencer partnerships, hashtag campaigns, and user-generated content to build sustainable brand loyalty in South Africa’s digitally engaged consumer market. This study provides the first empirical analysis of TikTok’s influence on beauty brand loyalty in emerging markets, offering strategic insights for brands navigating Africa’s rapidly digitising beauty landscape.