HOLIDAY shoppers aren’t just abandoning crowded stores in favor of shopping online. They are also putting aside tablets in favor of pushing the buy button on bigger smartphones such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone 6 Plus.

    Online spending via smartphones surged more than 75 percent, surpassing purchases made on tablets for the first time this Thanksgiving weekend, according to data from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM).

    That suggests bigger screens, easier payment options combined with revamped retail websites and shopping applications customized for phones are changing consumer behavior.

    Smartphones accounted for 17.1 percent of all Cyber Monday spending as of 3 p.m. Monday in New York compared with 11.1 percent on tablets, according to IBM. Last year, smartphone purchases made up 10.5 percent of all online sales compared with 12.5 percent on tablets.

    “It’s a pretty big shift in consumer behavior,” said Jay Henderson, IBM’s marketing cloud director.

    As mobile phones begin doing most of the tablet’s job, the lines are blurring between the two and the pocketable phone is coming out on top. Worldwide tablet sales are expected to drop 8.1 percent this year to 211 million devices, according to IDC. Smartphone sales, meanwhile, were up 6.8 percent to 355 million in the third quarter. (SD-Agencies)