Seasonal shopping lags during post-Black Friday lull.

NPD Group data has shown that despite dollar sales doubling in the fourth week of the 2016 holiday shopping season, which included Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, compared to the previous week, overall holiday season sales are down from 2015.

This year’s Thanksgiving week sales were 1% lower than Thanksgiving week 2015, and sales were down 3% for the first four weeks of the holiday shopping season (ending Nov. 26), compared to 2015.

Top Performing Categories

PCs (Notebooks)
Home Automation
Sports Toys
Games/Puzzles
Streaming Audio Speakers

Instant Print Cameras also had noteworthy growth.

“Retailers of all types set out to lure consumers with an increase in promotions, and it worked…for a few categories, but not for everything. Less conventional holiday winners beat out anticipated headliners, like last year’s wearable fitness tracker success story. But, big TVs are also making their mark on the 2016 holiday season, and a handful of other categories are gaining momentum,” said Marshal Cohen, NPD’s chief industry analyst.

“While the pace picked up over Thanksgiving Week, overall the season is still lagging a bit and what follows is the post-Black Friday lull,” he said. “The challenge facing retailers now is to make the new, more spread-out holiday shopping season work to their advantage, and keep the hottest items in stock as consumers shop with the expectation of continued deals galore.”