The end of Thanksgiving dinner means the holiday shopping season has officially begun.

People lined up at stores like Best Buy and Target, which are among the stores opening Thursday evening to give shoppers a first crack at deals.

But according to Deloitte's annual holiday survey, shoppers are expected to spend more online than in-store for the first time.

An associate professor of market at UB says this is an example of the year-round shift toward e-commerce.

Charles Lindsey says as a result, brick and mortar stores are funneling more of their budgets into their online platforms to meet shopper demands.

"You have your brick and mortar channel, you have your traditional stores, you have your e-commerce channel, and you're managing that in an integrated fashion, trying to create a seamless customer experience," he said.

The National Retail Federation says 164 million shoppers are expected to spend money over Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday.