Saturday, small businesses are expected to reach for the first time $ 3 billion in online sales

Small Business Saturday was on track to set a new record $ 3 billion in online sales at 10 am Eastern Time, according to Adobe Analytics.

The day American Express Co.

AXP, -0.71%

Launched in 2010, online spending rose 24.3% year-over-year in the early morning, reaching $ 400 million.

Small businesses have not been spared from Black Friday shopping.

Shopify Inc.

SHOP, + 1.66%

claims that its small and medium-sized businesses and direct-to-customer merchants, which total more than 600,000 people, totaled $ 573 million in sales. The company's merchants reported more than $ 870,000 in sales per minute during Black Friday's peak.

Overall, online sales at Black Friday totaled $ 6.22 billion, up 23.6% from last year, according to Adobe. And it was the first black Friday to show smartphone sales of $ 2 billion.

"Even consumers who bought online retail store trips with BOPIS orders were up significantly (73%) from Thursday to Friday," said Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights. "Retailers have done their part to create better mobile experiences for consumers and turn almost 10% of smartphone visitors into buyers this black Friday compared to the last."

Lily: Handsfree are Santa's tools, while more and more vacationers are using downtime for their mobile shopping

Buyers are also becoming more comfortable with larger online shopping, with the average order value setting a new black Friday record at $ 146, up 8.5% from the previous year. 39, last year.

Charlie O 'Shea, Moody's chief retail analyst, says the usual guidelines for determining whether the business is strong do not apply.

"The paradigm has evolved so much to the online connection," he told MarketWatch during his visit to brick and mortar stores on Saturday. "It's hard to use conventional analysis tools like cars in the parking lot."

Black Friday is still important even though more activity is moving online and more shopping is done in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. The season starts for some after Halloween, when holiday decorations come out, says O'Shea.

See: Online retail sales on Thanksgiving Day are up 28% from last year

"The thrill of hunting, which was traditionally Black Friday, has been evolving for years, as Thanksgiving sales grew in importance and online sales exploded," he said. "However, it's still a very important shopping day because it's the backbone of what has become a five-day shopping weekend."

In addition, stores are always critical points of contact to reach consumers, with things like eye-catching shop windows that give consumers a reason to get up off the couch to shop.

"This is an opportunity for retailers to showcase their physical assets," said O'Shea, describing the change in the holiday experience. "It's not replaced, it's advanced and expanded."

The SPDR S & P Retail ETF

XRT + 0.29%

has fallen 0.7% since the beginning of the year, but the Amplify Online Retail ETF

J & # 39; BUY, + 0.88%

is up 4.1% for the period. The S & P 500 index

SPX, -0.66%

is down 1.5% for 2018 so far, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average

DJIA, -0.73%

gained 1.8%.