(REUTERS)

U.S. shoppers used their mobile phones, laptops, desktops and other devices to make roughly $10.8 billion in purchases online on Black Friday, an updated tally from Adobe Analytics showed.

Black Friday, the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, marks the official start of the holiday shopping season for retailers and competition has intensified to win every penny-pinched shopper seeking discounts.

Increased online shopping potentially favours e-commerce giants such as Amazon.com and Walmart. Walmart, which operates 4,700 U.S. stores, has invested heavily in store-to-home deliveries for the holiday season to boost e-commerce.

U.S. spending online on Black Friday rose 10.2%, said Adobe, which keeps track of devices that use its software to help power more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites.

In 2023, U.S. shoppers spent $9.8 billion online on Black Friday, and in 2022, they spent $9.1 billion, Adobe said.

For Black Friday this year Corey Coscioni, 58, said he looked for bargains online as well as in stores, seeking "gifts for everyone: my wife, my daughter, and myself."

Top selling merchandise online included makeup, skincare and haircare products, as well as bluetooth speakers and espresso machines, Adobe said on Saturday.

Online sales of toys rose 622% compared to average daily sales in October, while jewellery sales rose 561% and appliances spiked 476% compared to October, it added.

Separately, Salesforce, a cloud-based software company, said online sales in the U.S. rose 7% on Friday to $17.5 billion, according to its own updated tally on Saturday. Salesforce, which analysed traffic patterns at thousands of online retailers, said shoppers bought more home appliances and furniture.

Department store chains such as Macy's and Kohl's as well as big-box retailer Target could see muted sales this season, which is shorter with only 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.