Americans jumped on holiday deals over the weekend but a larger slice of their spending migrated online, often through mobile devices, highlighting the high-wire act that faces retailers tethered to stores.
A National Retail Federation survey released Sunday showed that online spending during Thanksgiving weekend grew at the expense of store spending for a straight second year. The NRF survey estimates that about 109 million people shopped online, compared with 99 million in stores.
Foot traffic at malls and shopping centers was thinner than the frenzied crowds of years past after retailers offered discounts earlier in November and many of the promotions also were available online.
Online spending on Thanksgiving and the following day, known as Black Friday, increased nearly 18% to $ 5.27 billion compared with last year, said Adobe Systems Inc., which analyzed data from 22.6 billion visits to retail websites.
More Americans think it is "easier to shop from one's couch than to fight one's way through the mall," Ray Harjen, a spokesman for RetailNext, an in-store analytics firm, which reported that the number of store visitors fell nearly 11% on Black Friday from a year ago and sales dropped more than 10%.
The shift highlights the struggle traditional retailers face as they strive to attract foot traffic into their brick-and-mortar locations with deep promotions, friendly staff and exclusive products, while investing billions to become e-commerce experts to fend off Amazon.com Inc. and attract consumers who are more willing to use their mobile phones to snag deals.
The deeply promotional climate that started as early as October, combined with some deflationary pressure, led average spending to fall 3.5% over the weekend, according to the NRF survey, which estimated that 154 million people shopped during the four-days.
The most popular time to shop in store was Black Friday after 10 a.m., according to the survey. "Those days when people were in line at 3, 4 o'clock in the morning didn't seem to be there," said NRF President Matthew Shay.
BJ's Wholesale Club Chief Executive Chris Baldwin said more shoppers were drawn to the chain's stores by discounts on electronics, but they also purchased practical items such as cookware and apparel, a sign that shoppers were still somewhat cautious about spending.
Thanksgiving weekend has become a mobile-buying inflection point. Amazon said sales from mobile phones on this year's Black Friday beat last year's Cyber Monday and Black Friday, and exceeded such sales on Thanksgiving to become one of the biggest mobile shopping days on its site. Overall, Amazon said orders were stronger on Black Friday this year.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer by revenue, said 60% of Black Friday online orders came through mobile devices, up from 50% last year. According to Adobe, mobile phones accounted for 55% of website traffic on Black Friday, and 36% of sales, up from 33% of sales in 2015 and 26% of sales in 2014.
"You have a lot of people who are mobile for the weekend while traveling," said Antonio Nieves, chief operating and financial officer for Bonobos Inc., a men's clothing retailer that began as a website. Mr. Nieves said mobile shopping spiked more than expected on Thanksgiving Day when it may not be socially acceptable to open a laptop.
The early Black Friday estimates don't always align with actual dollar-sales data compiled later in the season, especially as more shoppers spend before or after the Thanksgiving week.
There are signs some brick-and-mortar retailers have upped their e-commerce game this year. Walmart.com was more competitive with Amazon on selection and price, according to data from Boomerang Commerce, a pricing-data firm.
Walmart.com carried 66% of the most popular toys on Amazon.com, up from 46% last year, according to Boomerang. Jet.com Inc., which Wal-Mart purchased in September, also had more overlap with Amazon on popular toys than last year. Both sites more often sold those toys at lower prices than Amazon compared with other retailers including Target Corp. and Toys "R" Us, Boomerang said.
That shows that Wal-Mart, now the second largest U.S. e-commerce website after Amazon by traffic, "can be a pretty significant player online this holiday," said Guru Hariharan, chief executive of Boomerang.
But as this holiday season's promotion and shopping trends become the new normal, retailers may face margin strain because online orders generally are costlier than in-store sales, said Steve Barr, retail analyst at PwC.
Traditional retailers rely on a Black Friday boost to set the tone of the holiday shopping season, but consumers who gravitate to stores on lazy weekends often already have stocked up online.
On Sunday, Mary Jo Gotham, a retired high-school teacher who lives in Arlington Heights, Ill., was perusing Macy's on Chicago's State Street. she said she didn't plan to make any purchases but enjoys the bustle of the iconic nine-story retailer during the holiday season. She said she started buying gifts for her grandchildren online, mostly on Amazon, before Thanksgiving.
"It's hard to buy for grandkids, so Amazon makes my life easy," Ms. Gotham said. "I don't like to stand in lines, so it saves me having to run to the post office."
—Erin Ailworth, Kelsey Gee and Laura Stevens contributed to this article.
Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com
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