More people shopped online than in stores as the holiday shopping season kicked off, signaling the end of Black Friday as we know it

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Black Friday saw more people shopping online than in stores this year.
41.4 million people shopped only online from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday, 6.4 million more than those who shopped exclusively in stores, according to the National Retail Federation.
Black Friday online sales hit $6.22 billion, an increase of 23.7% from 2017, Adobe Analytics data showed.

More people shopped online than in stores this year as the holiday shopping season kicked off.

According to the National Retail Federation, 41.4 million people shopped only online from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday. That's more than 6 million more than the 34.7 million who shopped exclusively in stores.

The most common shopping practice was to mix in-store and online shopping, with the NRF reporting that there were 89.7 million omnichannel shoppers.

The dominance of e-commerce, both for people who only shop online and those who shop online and in-stores, is becoming increasingly clear on Black Friday.

Black Friday online sales hit $6.22 billion, according to Adobe Analytics data — up by 23.7% from $5.03 billion last year. Surrounding days were similarly impressive, with online sales up more than 19% every day from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving until Cyber Monday.

Meanwhile, stores' foot traffic fell 1.7% on Black Friday, according to retail analytics brand ShopperTrak. Combined visits for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday were down 1%.

"Ultimately, consumers really want convenience and they want to get their item and get out of the store quickly. They don't want to wait in long lines, they don't want to wait for a store to open anymore," Josh Elman, senior specialist at Nasdaq Advisory Services, told Business Insider last October.

As a result, some of the biggest difficulties retailers faced over the last few days were related to explosive web traffic, not overcrowded stores. Shoppers dealt with out-of-stock messages as well as a number of website crashes and technical difficulties.