Report: last-minute retail sales, foot traffic down

Last-minute shopping activity drove large increases in retail sales and foot traffic last week, but both sales and foot traffic were down compared to last year, says a retail report released Thursday. 

The data, known as the ShopperTrak National Retail Sales Estimate, reported that for the week ending Dec. 22, sales increase more than 39 percent and traffic increase 32 percent compared to the previous week. 

But retail sales were down 2.5 percent and foot traffic was down 3.3 percent, compared to the same week last year. 

Dec. 22 was the second-busiest retail sales and foot traffic day of the year, behind Black Friday (Nov. 23). 

ShopperTrak, a Chicago-based retail technology company that measures foot traffic in more than 50,000 locations globally, forecasts that day-after-Christmas sales won't be as strong as last year because of the day of the week. 

Last year, Dec. 26 fell on a Monday. This year, it was a Wednesday. 

"Many people were back at work, not in stores," says ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin in a statement.  

ShopperTrak will release its retail sales and foot traffic numbers for the week ending Dec. 29 during its holiday wrap-up news on Jan. 8.

The U.S. Department of Commerce will release its December numbers in February.