Online shopping climbed to a record in the 2024 holiday season, with the majority of US e-commerce transactions taking place on mobile devices and artificial intelligence powering click throughs to retail websites, Adobe (ADBE) Analytics' data showed Tuesday.

Consumer spending rose 8.7% year over year to $241.4 billion from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, outpacing Adobe's September prediction of $240.8 billion. The share of units sold for the most expensive goods rose 21%, led by electronics, appliances and sporting goods, amid strong discounts.

Roughly 55% of total transactions took place through smartphones in the most recent shopping season, rising from 51.1% in 2023. Mobile shopping peaked on Christmas Day with a 65% share of online spend, compared with 63% the year prior.

"The 2024 holiday season showed that e-commerce is being reshaped by a consumer who now prefers to transact on smaller screens and lean on generative AI-powered services to shop more efficiently," said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.

Traffic to retail websites through generative AI-powered chatbots soared 1,300% year over year, which Adobe said essentially positions them as shopping assistants.

Overall e-commerce spending through the 2024 holiday season was bolstered by Cyber Week, which includes the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. Sales were up 8.2% year over year to $41.1 billion during that period, ahead of Adobe's $40.6 billion forecast.

Cyber Monday remained 2024's biggest online shopping day with $13.3 billion in spend, a 7.3% increase from 2023. Adobe had expected Cyber Monday sales of $13.2 billion. Black Friday sales increased about 10% to $10.8 billion, while Thanksgiving spending rose 8.8% to $6.1 billion.

"Strong consumer spending online continues to be driven by net-new demand and not higher prices," Adobe wrote in the report. Adobe's digital price index shows e-commerce prices have fallen for 27 consecutive months and were down 2.6% year to year in November.