Online spending reached $8.3 billion on first day of major retail event

First-day volume increased 5.3 percent from the same period last year, exceeding earlier forecasts. Electronics and home goods accounted for much of the additional activity.

Buy-now-pay-later services processed $668 million of the day's purchases. The same report noted that updated search systems raised customer acquisition metrics by more than 50 percent compared with the prior event. Analysts tracking automated trading models now project $26.3 billion in total sales across U.S. commerce platforms for the full promotion period.