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Online sales hit record for Thanksgiving

Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY
Customers line up outside Kmart on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 26, 2015,  in Chicago. Kmart stores opened at 6 a.m.

LOS ANGELES — Early reports for Thanksgiving Black Friday sales show a record number of consumers using their mobile devices for shopping.

Software firm Adobe, which tracks sales at 4,500 websites, predicts $1.7 billion will be spent for the 24-hour Thursday period. Researcher Shoppertrack says retail stores rang up $3.2 billion in sales last Thanksgiving, while the Thursday/Friday period total was some $12.29 billion in sales at retail.

Black Friday 2015

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Target CEO Brian Cornell spoke to reporters shortly after stores opened Thursday, and said he saw “really strong traffic,” in-store and expects “record breaking results,” for online. “We’re seeing very strong results, and expect it to continue throughout the weekend.”

Thursday, between midnight and 5:30 p.m. ET, some $1 billion worth of sales had been generated in online sales, up 22% from the previous Thanksgiving, with over 26% of sales from mobile devices, says Adobe. The firm projects total mobile sales will be 29%, a record.

Adobe says the average discount is 24%, and that sales were led by Star Wars toy products, the Pie Face Game and Crayola Super Art Coloring Kit, along with tech items like Samsung 4K TVs, the heavily discounted Apple iPad Air 2, videogame consoles xBox One and Sony PlayStation 4 and the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.

Thanksgiving Day shopping has grown in popularity as retailers have expanded Black Friday store sales from Friday into Thursday. This year, 22.3% of consumers are expected to shop on Thanksgiving, up from 18.3% last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Overall, nearly 136 million people are slated to shop over the entire holiday weekend, up from nearly 134 million last year, according to NRF.

The biggest retail chains--including Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy, planned to open at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, while others preferred to wait for the traditional Black Friday sale--including Staples, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods.

Steve Diab of Carson, California, camped outside a Los Angeles area Best Buy all night long, hoping to nab one of the 50 inch televisions from Toshiba that was being advertised as a $149 door buster special. He figures he'll save $250 on the TV, but, "I'm buying cellphones and video games too, so it's worth it."

At a Nashville area Best Buy, folks had the same Toshiba TV in mind. "Of course this is worth it, it's almost a 50-inch TV for only $150," said Shawn Sims, the first customer in line. Sims slept in her car in the store's parking lot Wednesday to nab the first spot in line on Thanksgiving.

In Eatontown, New Jersey, teenager Max Santti had been waiting in line since 7 p.m. Wednesday night outside a Best Buy. Santti said he wanted a Playstation 4 bundle and Beats headphones. Beyond saving money, Santii said he likes the sport of it too.

"I like a little bit of an adventure. I'd rather stay out and wait, instead of doing nothing and wait until (Cyber) Monday," he said.

Even with the later openings for many stores, some retailers began pushing out their Black Friday deals earlier in the day for online orders. And Amazon and Walmart said they would continue discounting products over the weekend, leading to more deals on Cyber Monday, the second busiest shopping day of the 5-day Thanksgiving holiday period.

Retailers plan to continue sales throughout the weekend, and even get a jumpstart on Cyber Monday deals — Walmart will roll its deals out on Sunday.

Contributing: Hadley Malcolm, USA TODAY, Lizzy Alfs, the Tennessean and Russ Zimmer, the Asbury Park Press.

Jefferson Graham on Twitter: @jeffersongraham.

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