PCs were used in less than half of online retail orders during the US Black Friday shopping event for the first time ever, as orders from mobile phones climbed above 40 per cent, data from Salesforce showed.

The figures indicated 42 per cent of Black Friday orders were placed from a phone this year compared with 34 per cent in 2016. The growth was just enough to tip the scales against PCs, which dipped to 49 per cent of orders.

Overall retail traffic generated by mobile phones on Black Friday (24 November) hit 60 per cent, up from 52 per cent in 2016.

Black Friday is a major US shopping event following the Thanksgiving holiday, where top retailers offer steep discounts.

Salesforce noted mobile also outperformed PCs on Thanksgiving Day, surpassing computer order share for the first time. Mobile accounted for 46 per cent of all orders, squeaking past the 45 per cent share captured by PCs. Mobile generated 37 per cent of orders on Thanksgiving Day 2016.

Mobile also appears to have had a sustained influence on the digital retail space throughout November so far.

Separate data from Adobe Analytics shows mobile generated 45 per cent of retail traffic and just over 25 per cent of purchases between 1 November and 26 November. All told, mobile generated $9.7 billion, or around 22 per cent, of online retail revenue during the period.

AI influence
Salesforce also began tracking the proportion of shoppers influenced by artificial intelligence (AI) product recommendations in 2017.

While only a small portion of shoppers (5 per cent and 6 per cent on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, respectively) clicked on AI-generated recommendations, Salesforce noted those same recommendations helped drive as much as 30 per cent (on Black Friday) of all online shopping revenue.