Black Friday shoppers spent a record $10.8 billion online: What did people buy?
People didn't just fill their plates this Thanksgiving weekend -- data shows they also filled their online shopping carts.
Black Friday online shopping this year set a new high, reaching $10.8 billion in sales, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks U.S. e-commerce data.
That's more than double what online consumers spent on online shopping in 2017, when sales were just over $5 billion, according to Adobe.
The record pace of Black Friday buying followed record-setting online shopping on Thanksgiving itself, the analytics firm said. Consumers spent a record $6.1 billion online on Turkey Day -- up nearly 9% compared to a year ago, according to Adobe.
What are people buying this Black Friday?
Spending on toys was a major driver of online Black Friday sales, according to Adobe, with overall toy sales up 622% compared to an average day earlier this fall. Sales of jewelry were up by 561%, appliances up by 476%, apparel up by 374$ and electronics up 334%.
Popular toys included included Harry Potter LEGO sets, "Wicked" toys, card and board games, Disney Princess toys and dolls and Cookeez Makery oven play sets. Gaming consoles, such the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch OLED and Meta Quest were also popular.
Other "hot sellers," according to Adobe, were makeup and skin-care sets, Bluetooth speakers and headphones, smart watches, perfumes and espresso machines.
Increasingly, online shopping is happening on smaller screens. More than half of all online sales on Black Friday --about 55% -- were on mobile screens, according to Adobe.
Overall, it appears people were more keen to shop online than to hit the stores in-person.
In another analysis of Black Friday spending, MasterCard said online retail sales rose 14.6% compared to last year, while in-store sales only inched up 0.7%.
Overall retail sales -- combining both online and in-store sales -- were up 3.4% this year, according to MasterCard.
