San Francisco, Nov 25 (IANS): Smartphone transactions hit a record high in the US on Black Friday as shoppers thronged retail stores as well as went online to celebrate.

According to Adobe Digital Insights mobile transactions were "hitting record highs".

Black Friday follows Thanksgiving Day that is observed on the fourth Thursday of November, heralding the Christmas shopping season.

"The big story this holiday season is in mobile shopping," CNBC reported, quoting Mickey Mericle, Vice president of Adobe's Marketing and Customer Insights division.

According to Adobe Insights, 61.1 per cent of shoppers' visits to retailers' websites were for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

A report in The Financial Times said the holiday season was set to be the first in which more shopping will happen online than in stores.

"Brands and retailers will offer an array of great deals on electronic devices. Those that we expect to lure consumers the most will be headphones, tablets, fitness bands, smartphones and TVs. We also expect smartwatches, VPA-enabled speakers and smart headphones to fuel demand," Annette Zimmermann, Research Vice President at Gartner for Black Friday, said in a statement.

For several years now, Black Friday has become a driver of sales in Europe, both in online and offline commerce.

"We see this trend in many European countries, including the UK, Germany, France and Italy, where Black Friday and Cyber Week have become well-known terms for shoppers," Zimmermann added.

Gartner expects sales of smartphones to total 1.57 billion units in 2017, up 4.9 per cent from 2016.