A woman looks for information at Macy's Herald Square in New York during a Black Friday sale.

Department stores overall appear to have fared well on Black Friday, kicking off the holiday shopping season on a high note.

Already on Thanksgiving Day, throngs of shoppers were spotted across the country outside of places such as J.C. Penney, Macy's and Kohl's, hoping to snag limited doorbusters and other deep discounts on home goods, kitchen accessories and apparel.

That doesn't include the millions of shoppers who opted to ring up purchases from the convenience of their smartphones and computers. Adobe Insights, which measures 80 percent of online transactions at 100 major U.S. retailers, said a record $5.03 billion was spent online by the end of Black Friday, an increase of 17 percent from 2016.

"I think department stores had a reasonable time of it, better than last year," GlobalData Retail Managing Director Neil Saunders told CNBC.

GlobalData's preliminary tracking figures have already predicted total Black Friday sales to have risen the most since 2011. The National Retail Federation (NRF), the industry's trade group, is calling for an increase as much as 4 percent, with those results set to be released Tuesday afternoon.

Some of America's department stores, though, are already calling the day a victory.

"Black Friday sales and traffic have been very strong, both online and in store — well ahead of last year," Kohl's CEO Kevin Mansell said in a statement Friday evening.

The retailer said it delivered a "record-breaking" Thanksgiving, both in stores and online. More than 16 million visits were made to kohls.com, Kohl's said, outpacing any prior traffic or sales precedents.

Kohl's also said it fulfilled roughly 40 percent more orders that were bought online and picked up in stores, when compared with Black Friday of last year. Retailers across the industry have increasingly been touting the ability to do this, as it aims to save them money and save customers time.

Mansell told CNBC Friday morning that the biggest sellers for Kohl's this year were the Apple Watch, a Fitbit device and the Instant Pot, which was already sold out online. Nike and Under Amour merchandise was also selling at a rapid clip, he said.