Online shopping sales hit a record during the holiday season

KEY POINTS

• Online shopping sales hit a new record this holiday season, Adobe Analytics said at the National Retail Federation's conference.
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday helped boost mobile sales.

An employee sorts packages inside the FedEx distribution hub at Los Angeles International Airport.

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Online shopping sales hit a record $108.2 billion this holiday season, a 14.7 percent increase from last year, according to Adobe Analytics.

The National Retail Federation previously said total sales for November and December were $691.9 billion, a 5.5 percent jump from last year. Adobe presented its report at the industry group's conference on Tuesday.

Mobile was a big driver on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with $7 billion spent on tablets or smartphones between the two shopping holidays. For the entire season, revenue for the category totaled $35.9 billion, a 28 percent year-over-year increase.

Larger markets grew between 15 percent and 20 percent faster than smaller ones, Adobe found. Areas with fast-growing populations of young people and high levels of international migration were associated with more e-commerce sales growth.

During the holiday season, bigger retailers were the winners. The average daily growth rate for medium-to-large retailers is 2.3 times that of smaller retailers per year, Adobe said. Large retailers' order value volume was two times greater than smaller retailers during the Thanksgiving weekend, Adobe said, but smaller retailers had the advantage in converting visits to purchases during that time frame, particularly on mobile devices.