Black Friday shoppers spent more in stores, broke records online over the weekend

Dalvin Brown | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Tips to avoid debt from holiday shopping USA TODAY personal finance reporter, Jessica Menton, delivers some tips for avoiding debt in order to deliver an enjoyable holiday gifting experience.

Americans spent more money Black Friday shopping in 2019 than ever before.

Both online and in-store sales figures increased over last year as consumers grow more comfortable with shopping on their smartphones and tablets.

Brick-and-mortar sales were up 4.2% over last year, according to an annual holiday spending report from First Data, now Fiserv.

The financial technology company also found that shoppers were willing to travel for a discount: A quarter of consumers traveled more than 25 miles to visit a physical store.

The report suggests that electronics, appliances, sporting goods and clothing were the must-have items. Electronics and appliances accounted for $214 per transaction on average, while shoppers spent $101 on sporting goods and $81 on shoes and clothing.

Fiserv says it drew its conclusion after analyzing sales data across more than 1 million brick-and-mortar merchant locations.

Spending via mobile wallets was up 82% compared with 2018, Fiserv found.

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“Despite the evolution in consumer shopping habits, Black Friday remains an important bellwether for the holiday season,” said Devin McGranahan, executive vice president and senior group president at Fiserv. “In 2019, consumers showed their willingness to travel for a good deal and blended their physical shopping with digital payments via mobile wallets.”

Online shopping pulled in a record $7.2 billion on Friday, according to Salesforce, which tracks online spending. That's a 14% growth over last year. On Thanksgiving, digital sales in the U.S. rose 17% to $4.1 billion; 65% of all digital orders came through a smartphone.

"This indicates that shoppers are ready to transition toward a mobile-only reality and that mobile is becoming the driver for multichannel and multitouchpoint engagements," Salesforce said in a news release.

The most buzzed-about brands on social media were PlayStation, Nintendo, Apple, Xbox and Google, Salesforce found.

The e-commerce behemoth Amazon was the most talked-about retailer online on Nov. 29, followed by Walmart and Target.

Follow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.