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More Shoppers Go Online Than In Store This Black Friday

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MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) -- For the first time ever, early numbers indicate more black Friday shoppers chose to make their purchases online than those who chose to stand in line.

Lines were long, smart carts were full and suitcases were packed with purchases.

"We don't care what we buy. It's all about the fun," said shopper Lisa Nelson, who dropped a couple of hundred bucks at Sawgrass Mills Mall. "We've been up since about 4:30 a.m. and we're just about done."

Thousands of people also packed Dadeland Mall in Kendall, looking for bargains and those perfect holiday presents.

Rick Campos, who'd been out shopping for six hours, says he'd already bought about 30 to 40 Christmas presents and saved plenty.

"At just one store, I can recall this morning, we saved about $450 in just one store," said Campos. "By the end of the day, I mean, I'd have to sit down and actually look at the receipts but there's savings."

Many shoppers used to the elbow to elbow Black Friday crowds noticed a difference this year.

"I expected to be a bit more booming, but I mean I got what I wanted, so if I can get that in the end then I could really care less about anything else," said shopper Charles Dandy. "It's pretty moderate I guess, nothing special, nothing excessive."

The number of consumers hitting the stores the day after Thanksgiving has dropped to 23 percent, down from 28 percent two years ago.

Those who do venture out are likely to be millennials -- but 38 percent of them still say they'd rather shop online.

The biggest shift of all is mobile apps.

Shoppers are expected to push mobile revenue to more than a billion dollars on just Friday alone.

"It has completely enhanced your shopping abilities," said shopper Katty Sierra.

If mobile sales continue at a record pace, 40 percent of all shopping on Black Friday will be done on mobile apps. Target, for example, saw a 200 percent increase over last year in mobile app sales. The increased traffic even crashed Macy's site.

Blogger Michelle Madhok says mobile apps have increased competition because it's so easy to compare prices.

"It's a click to see what the other prices are," she says. "Before, you had to drive from store to store to compare prices or go through tons of inserts in your newspaper."

Roughly 137 million people will do their shopping during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation.

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