Online shoppers in the United States made $1.2 billion worth of online purchases on Black Friday this year. This estimate marks a 33 percent increase in mobile sales from 2015.

More shoppers turned to their mobile devices to make purchases rather than visit physical stores on Black Friday this year. According to a report by Adobe, the generous 33 percent increase also meant that online shopping increased by 21.6 percent from 2015.

Tamara Gaffney, Adobe Digital Insights' principal analyst and director, said that shoppers continued to shop at higher-than-expected rates during the early hours of Small Business Saturday. She also noted that the record set by Black Friday may have overthrown Cyber Monday's position as the leading online shopping day of the year.

Ebay, Amazon, Target, and Walmart reported that mobile traffic sales were already on the rise on Thanksgiving Day. The trend continued into Black Friday. Retailers that invested in e-mail, mobile, and social promotions saw the largest sales.

A majority of the retail sales during Black Friday were driven by the mobile industry; smartphones accounted for 29 percent of the sales and tablets for 11 percent. Forbes reported that Apple iPad's were among the best-selling items. Meanwhile, the top-selling electronics include Apple's Macbook Air, Samsung's 4k TVs, Microsoft's Xbox, and LG TVs.

The record set by Black Friday shows that American consumers are now comfortable making online purchases. Thanks to technology and online payment methods that help make the checkout experience simple, online sales are booming.

Despite Black Friday sales setting a new record, the US still lags behind in online sales compared to other countries. The country's e-commerce industry is still trying to recover from the downturn it took during the recent presidential election.