TAMPA, Fla. — Holiday spending was up this year thanks to a late Thanksgiving, wage increases and more people working compared to previous years.

Despite slow Black Friday sales, brick and mortar retailers built on a slow, steady climb in holiday spending over the past decade.

But online sales was where the big money was for the holidays, with consumer spending up 19 percent compared to last year.

On Super Saturday, the Saturday before Christmas, consumers spent $34.4 billion dollars. That was around 4 times the amount spent on Black Friday.

Alexis Muellner with the Tampa Bay Business Journal says more people with more money to spend was a big factor.

"One of the big focal points has been wage growth and that has crept up.  I don't think we are really where we want to be it's still wages are behind where we want to see them.  But there is more dispensable income in peoples pockets and they are working less on budgets than they might have been in the past."

Some brick and mortar retailers did some investing of their own for the holiday shopping season.

Some upgraded shipping services to compete with online giants like Amazon.