Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, saw a surge in online spending as consumers searched for the best bargains and avoided crowded stores.

According to a report by Adobe Analytics, a leading provider of digital insights, online sales in the U.S. reached a record $9.8 billion on Black Friday, up 7.5% from a year earlier.

The report, which tracks one trillion visits to U.S. retail websites, 18 product categories and 100 million unique items, also found that $5.3 billion of the online sales came from mobile shopping, up 46% from last year.

This indicates that consumers are more comfortable making impulse purchases on their smartphones, influenced by social media advertising and influencers.

Vivek Pandya, a lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said that consumers have become more strategic and savvy in taking advantage of the marquee days of the holiday season, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, to maximize on discounts.

“Consumers are more in the driver’s seat when they are online shopping, because it is easier to make side-by-side price comparisons and secure a better price,” Pandya said.

He added that consumers are also price-sensitive, managing tighter budgets due to last year’s record inflation and interest rates.

As a result, many consumers opted for the ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ flexible payment method, which allows them to split their payments into installments. According to the Adobe report, $79 million of the sales came from this payment option, up 47% from last year.

The report also revealed the best-selling categories and products of Black Friday, which reflected the consumer preferences and trends of the year. Electronics, such as smartwatches and televisions, were the top sellers, followed by toys and gaming. Home-repair tools, on the other hand, underperformed.

Pandya said that the top sellers directly correlated to whichever products had the best discounts.

Some of the most popular products of Black Friday, according to the report, were:

• Apple AirPods
• Apple Watch
• Samsung TVs
• Nintendo Switch
• Lego sets
• Amazon Echo devices
• Barbie dolls
• Hot Wheels cars
• Nerf guns
• Call of Duty: Vanguard

The Adobe report also compared the online sales of Black Friday with those of Thanksgiving Day, which totaled $5.6 billion, up 8.6% from last year. Pandya said that Thanksgiving Day has become a significant online shopping day, as many retailers offer early deals and consumers shop from the comfort of their homes.

However, the report did not track the in-store sales of Black Friday, which have been declining in recent years due to the shift to online shopping and the spread of the pandemic. A separate analysis by Mastercard, which tracks both online and offline transactions, found that in-store sales rose just over 1% versus online sales, which grew by over 8% compared to last year.

“I do think the paradigm has changed around the in-store Black Friday experience, the long lines and things like that,” Pandya said.

The Adobe report expects the online spending spree to continue over the weekend and through Cyber Monday, which is projected to be the biggest online shopping day of the year. The report forecasts that online shoppers will spend roughly $10 billion over the course of Saturday and Sunday, and a record $12 billion on Cyber Monday.

However, Pandya also warned that the online spending growth may weaken after Cyber Monday, as the discounts will fade and consumers will focus more on essential goods. He noted that there are always some gift-givers who procrastinate their holiday shopping, so spending could continue to trickle in late into December. But the real growth surges, he said, “end up being in November and Thanksgiving week.”