Black Friday Online Sales Up 24.3 Percent

It seems a an increasing number of people are opting for the couch versus the crowd come Black Friday. IBM's fourth annual Black Friday Benchmark study which gauges online shopping found year over year Thanksgiving Day sales were up 39.3 percent with Black Friday sales up 24.3 percent.

Mobile devices accounted for 10.2 percent of Black Friday shopping with the iPhone and iPad topping the mobile device list with 5.4 percent and 4.8 percent. 9.8 percent of all online Black Friday sales were completed through a mobile device. Although sure to increase in future years, social networks accounted for 0.53 percent of online sales.

Of the study, IBM Chief Strategy Officer John Squire said, "This year marked Thanksgiving's emergence as the first big spending day of the 2011 holiday season with a record number of consumers shifting their focus from turkey to tablets and the search for the best deals. This momentum continued into Black Friday where the big winners were those retailers that delivered a smarter commerce experience with compelling, relevant deals that people could easily access from their channel of choice."