• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 5, 2017

While big-name retailers like Macy’s, Kohl’s and Sears are trapped in a post-holiday woe-is-me party, the final tallies on online sales are champagne-worthy.

ComScore says online holiday sales from the desktop climbed 12% to $63.1 billion. And once it factors in spending from both smartphones and tablets, it expects the increase to rise from 12% to between 16% and 19%, which it predicted back in November.

For the seventh year in a row, Cyber Monday emerged as the busiest day of the season, with more than $2 billion in desktop spending, and $1 billion in mobile spending -- a first for m-commerce.

“Aside from the continued growth of m-commerce, another positive story from this holiday season was the way it fought back and overcame the early-season malaise,” says comScore CEO Gian Fulgoni in its report. “Despite that initial setback, the American consumer kicked into high gear once Thanksgiving rolled around and the season saw consistent, healthy growth rates all the way through Free Shipping Day on December 16th, highlighted by a streak of 22 consecutive billion-dollar spending days on desktop.”

Adobe, meanwhile -- which has included mobile in its totals -- puts spending for the 2016 holiday season significantly higher at $91.7 billion in online sales, an 11% increase from last year and ahead of expectations. It says mobile shoppers spent $28.43 billion shopping on their devices, for a 23% jump. Of that, it says $19.26 billion came from smartphones, with $9.17 billion spent via tablets.

In terms of social buzz, Adobe reports that eBay won in social mentions, followed by Amazon, Walmart, Target and H&M. In individual products, Pokémon Sun/Moon topped Barbie, followed by Oculus, Lego, PSVR and Frozen Toys. 

And overall, retail spending seems strong. The International Council of Shopping Centers just released its post-holiday research, which reports that people spent an average of $711 this season -- an increase of some 16% from its survey at this time last year, and 4% better than its pre-holiday surveys measuring consumer intentions.

But some of the biggest names in retail -- including Macy’s, Kohl’s and Sears -- reported that their sales fell in November and December, sparking investor turmoil in the category.