Smartphones are dominating Cyber Monday for one simple reason

AP Photo/J Pat Carter

Smartphones are quickly becoming the go-to device for online shopping.

• Smartphones have emerged as the fastest-growing platform for online shopping this holiday, in terms of both browsing and purchasing.
• They dominated Thanksgiving day shopping, and are now on track to dominate Cyber Monday as well.
• Their ever presence on their owners and ease of use are likely contributors to the reason why.

Cyber Monday is here, and workers across America are heads down at their desks shopping on their phones.

The day is now on track to become the single biggest online sales day in US history, according to an early estimate from Adobe Analytics. As of 10 a.m., sales online have already totaled $840 million, measuring nearly 17% growth year over year.

Smartphones are one of the biggest drivers of that growth, with 44.6% of site visits, and nearly 30% of revenue generated. Traffic from phones increased 21% over last year, while revenue generated from phones grew 41% when compared to last year - a new growth record.

Part of this is due to the fact that everyone keeps their smartphones on them at all time, but another is because of the fact that mobile experiences have been refined through apps and integration with mobile wallet services like Apple Pay.

"More of [Cyber Monday shopping] will be happening on smartphones ... where smoother buying experiences through auto-fill capabilities are helping drive the growth we see in mobile," Tamara Gaffney, Adobe Analytics' head of Strategic Insights Engagement Group, said in a prepared statement on the data.

For example, Apple Pay's integration allows users to avoid entering any kind of personal or delivery information and instead allows you to make a purchase immediately with just a thumbprint or face scan.

Most retailers have undergone pains to make their app experiences more streamlined as well, reducing the number of steps it takes to get from the shopping basket screen to the order confirmation screen.

Smartphones are also contributing to sales growth on Thanksgiving over Black Friday, counting for 46% of all retailer traffic according to Adobe - an increase of more than 15% over last year. At the same time, traffic decreased from both tablets and desktops, making mobile the most popular option for Thanksgiving shopping for the first time ever.