Despite record e-commerce sales, Black Friday weekend revenues dropped an estimated 11 percent, according to the National Retail Federation, down from $57.4 billion last year to $50.9 billion this year. The drop in sales occurred despite many stores starting their weekend sales on Thanksgiving day.

The decrease was due to fewer people shopping and those that were shopping spending less money. People who shopped or planned to shop either in stores or online over the four-day weekend totaled only 133.7 million, 5.2 percent less than last year. And those who shopped spent only $380.95 on average versus $407.02 last year.

The drop in sales indicates that Black Friday itself may be losing importance, as more retailers are offering big discounts days or even weeks before the traditional shopping day. Others may be holding out for even better deals as the season progresses.

Cyber Monday, the traditional biggest online shopping day of the year, is also dying in popularity. Adobe’s Digital Index principal analyst Tamara Gaffney says that next year Black Friday online sales could surpass Cyber Monday’s for the first time. In findings released on Sunday, Adobe showed that this year’s Black Friday online sales jumped 24 percent from last year, with Thanksgiving sales up 25 percent.

Crowds were reportedly unremarkable over the weekend. Many shoppers found the volume and the pace to be little different from any other shopping weekend. Walmart was the leader in lines and crowds. Ken Perkins, founder of industry research company Retail Metrics, said Target, Best Buy, Kohl’s and Old Navy were busy on Thanksgiving night, but also said Black Friday is becoming a thing of the past.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 45 percent of shoppers bought electronics, making it the big sales winners over the four-day shopping spree. Televisions were the most sought item, helped by deals on larger and ultrahigh-definition models. TVs beat out tablets and smartphones, despite predictions to the contrary. However, electronics sales were also down from previous years, according to the electronics industry group’s chief economist Shawn DuBravac, who theorized that deeper discounts could have translated into lower overall sales.

Another hot sales item on Black Friday was firearms. More than 144,000 background checks, the equivalent of three investigations per second, were initiated on Friday. Approximately 600 FBI and contract call center employees will be sifting through the requests over a three-day span. Gun sales have been rising since late 2012, following the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, with fears that new gun control laws could tighten future access to firearms.

Clothing, typically a big seller on Black Friday, was a loser this year. Unless the discounts were huge, consumers were largely disinterested in apparel.

With Thanksgiving coming late this year, the holiday selling season is shorter than usual, leading to concerns about package delivery delays and cutting down  the number of available shopping days in general. However, the National Retail Federation is not giving up on rosy sales estimates for the full retail season. Matthew Shay, chief executive and president at the federation acknowledged that early numbers indicate a struggle for the entire season, predicting that it is going to be a “dogfight” every minute to capture sales.