NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - It wasn't in the bag for retailers this past weekend.

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Combined retail sales for this past Saturday and Sunday -- typically the busiest shopping weekend of the year -- dipped 3.3 percent versus the same two-day period last year, according to a ShopperTrak report Monday.

Sales for Saturday alone dropped 7 percent compared to the same shopping day a year ago, while sales for the week ended Dec. 18 fell 5.9 percent versus a year earlier.

"While there is some concern regarding the continued retail sluggishness this season, consumers have an additional two days this year to finish their holiday shopping, which may boost this season's final retail performance," Michael Niemira, chief economist and director of research for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) said in a statement.

Savvy bargain hunters came out and saw deep discounts on the last weekend before Christmas, but for many the lack of a "must-have" item this year was a turn-off.

That hurt the toy business, industry analysts said, while shortages of some hot products put a damper on electronics sales.

"The closer you get to Christmas, there's this mentality on the part of consumers where they're willing to go out just a little bit more to get the even bigger discounts," said Britt Beemer, senior retail analyst with America's Research Group (ARC), a Charleston, S.C.-based consumer research firm.

According to Beemer, even though more shoppers went out shopping this past weekend -- 52 percent versus 43.6 percent for the same time last year -- actual purchase trends may have been weaker.

In an ARC survey of 800 shoppers conducted Sunday night, toys, electronics and apparel performed poorly while jewelry and fragrance products did well.

"The toy category continues to struggle," said Beemer. "Our survey shows that this year 33.5 percent of weekend shoppers said they bought toys compared with 37.5 percent last year. The big surprise was electronics, which came in flat with last year at 19.7 percent. One reason for this could be that people simply couldn't find what they were looking for."

While gift shoppers have been snatching up gadgets and gizmos this season, that's made it hard for Best Buy (Research), Target (Research) and some other retailers to keep pace with demand for hot items like Apple's iPod and Nintendo game consoles.

In its survey, ARC found that 14.6 percent of shoppers bought perfume, up from 10 percent last year, and 16.2 percent bought jewelry versus 14.5 percent in 2003.

"Overall, the moderate-priced stores such as J.C. Penney, Sears and Wal-Mart had good traffic levels," Beemer said. "We think luxury sales were probably flat this past weekend because more people said they decided to go away on vacation before Christmas this year than last year. So this could have impacted spending on other high-end items."

Wal-Mart Stores (Research), the world's largest retailer, said Saturday it still expects to see its December sales up 1 to 3 percent at stores open at least a year.

Separately, a bulk of holiday shoppers -- some 73 million consumers -- have already finished their shopping, and another 75 million have completed three-fourths of their shopping so far, according to the latest Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF). Another 12 million consumers have yet to get started.

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Based on the survey, the trade group estimates that up to twenty percent of holiday sales will occur the week before Christmas and another 10 percent of sales the week after Christmas when consumers redeem gift cards.

"Though a large percentage of shopping has been completed, many sales have not been recorded due to heavy purchasing of gift cards, which are not recorded until merchandise is redeemed," said Phil Rist, vice president of market research firm BIGresearch, in a statement. "Most consumers will have their shopping completed by Christmas Day, but will head out after Christmas to take advantage of discounted merchandise and spend gift cards."

The NRF said it still stands by its projections for total holiday sales for November and December to increase 4.5 percent to $219.9 billion.

The survey, conducted by BIGresearch, polled 2,576 consumers from Dec. 17 to 19 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent.