Consumers found time this U.S. Thanksgiving Day to squeeze in a lot more holiday shopping online, in between spending time with family, watching football and feasting on turkey.

EBay Inc's PayPal online payments division said that on Thanksgiving day, its volume of payments jumped 25 percent from a year ago. Last year on Thanksgiving day, PayPal said it notched a 15 percent increase from a year earlier.

PayPal processes transactions for a wide range of online retail sites as well as purchases on eBay.

Walmart.com, the online division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, said it had an incredibly strong day as customers shopped its Thanksgiving day online-only specials.

Some of the top sellers among its online-only deals included a Samsung 46-inch LCD television, a KidKraft Savannah dollhouse and a Bissell steam mop hard floor cleaner.

Holiday sales online are expected to rise 3 percent this year after a 3 percent decline in 2008, when shoppers cut spending sharply in the wake of a global financial crisis. Investors are watching closely as Walmart.com takes on industry leader Amazon.com Inc with steep discounts on everything from toys to books.

Shoebuy.com said that on Thanksgiving day, traffic on its site steadily built throughout the day, with late afternoon and evening being its busiest time.

But consumers also continued to seek online deals on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when retailers offer their doors early and offer limited-time only deals.

Shoebuy.com said it saw robust numbers on Friday morning as the Black Friday buying frenzy extended itself from brick-and-mortar stores and into the online world.

(Reporting by Nicole Maestri; Editing by Richard Chang)

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