US shoppers buy early this holiday season

Shoppers are also using the devices to track down the lowest prices. The average order value on Black Friday declined by 4.7 percent to $181.22, and the average number of items per order dropped 12 percent to 5.6, according to IBM.

Our Black Friday numbers were a little softer than Thanksgiving, said Eric Best, chief executive of Mercent, which helps merchants sell more on websites including Amazon.com, ebay.com and Google Inc's online shopping program. That tells me there are timing shifts happening this holiday season.

Client sales on Black Friday rose 23 percent from last year, while Thanksgiving sales rose 32 percent year over year, Mercent estimated.

What we don't know is whether this is a zero-sum game or whether there is some benefit to retailers by broadening the holiday shopping window, Best said. There is risk that real growth in retail for the entire holiday may be overestimated based on these early numbers.

Scot Wingo, chief executive of e-commerce company ChannelAdvisor, calls the early online shopping season Cyber 5, referring to Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Cyber Monday.

The online players are definitely participating more on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, so Cyber Monday is being shared with other holidays now, Wingo said.

ChannelAdvisor clients saw same-store sales on Amazon.com jump 35 percent on Thanksgiving and 38.3 percent on Black Friday, compared with a year earlier.

Client same-store sales on eBay's online marketplace rose 27 percent on Thanksgiving and 31 percent on Black Friday,

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