NEW YORK — Target’s expanded online delivery options, new brands and updated stores helped drive shoppers to spend more during the critical holiday shopping season.

Target, which is trying to narrow the gap between itself and online leader Amazon, enjoyed a 31 percent spike in online sales. Comparable sales, which include sales at stores opened at least a year and online sales, rose 5.3 percent. It was the best performance since 2004 and surpassed the 5 percent growth that industry analysts had expected, according to a survey by FactSet.

Physical stores, which the company has dedicated billions of dollars to update and modernize, also realized gains. Target recorded a 4.5 percent increase in store traffic. The company says that it’s picking up market share across different areas, from fashion to toys.

“Our strategy is working,” Target’s CEO Brian Cornell told analysts at its annual meeting in New York Tuesday. But he cautioned, “We still have a lot to do…. This is no time to slow down.”

The company put out a better-than-expected forecast for the year, and shares rose more than 4 percent on Tuesday.

Target follows Walmart, Best Buy and several other chains in bucking some early gloomy U.S. government data reports on December sales, which cast a pall on the retail sector. Many retailers have been helped by a strong economy that brought higher wages and lower unemployment.  But the financially healthy ones like Target have plowed money into sprucing up stores, and are expanding their online operations as they respond to shoppers’ shift to online shopping.

On Tuesday, Kohl’s also reported an increase in sales at stores opened at least a year for the holiday quarter and offered a rosy profit outlook. The company, which is on a mission to shrink its biggest department stores, said it will lease or sell the newly empty space at 10 locations to Planet Fitness.