Christmas Day Shopping Jumps Online

New data show online shopping on Christmas Day shot up 16.4% from last year, a sign shoppers were eager to use gift cards left under the tree by Santa from the comfort of their homes, according to IBM.

The growing number compliments a 172.9% leap in Dec. 25 purchases made using mobile phones, as well as a sharp jump in shoppers receiving gift cards, according to IBM's Benchmark snapshot of online retail sales.

IBM, which tracks shopping at more than 500 web sites including Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), says it noticed a huge increase in the number of shoppers making purchase with smartphones this year,.

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone contributed 6.4% to web sales, the iPad, made up 7% of total online sales, and Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android devices constituted about 6.4%.

As of late afternoon on Monday, shopping was up 10% over Dec. 26, 2010, and IBM only predicted the pace of buying would increase as the day wore on.

Meanwhile, The National Federation of Retailers says eight in 10 consumers purchased at least one gift card this year, while BigResearch estimates that gift cards sales will total $27.8 billion during this holiday season, up from $24.8 billion last year.