Washington - Retail sales at CE and appliance specialty stores fell an estimated 3.1 percent year over year in March, the U.S. Commerce Department reported.

But last month's $8.3 billion haul was 1 percent higher than February's take, the agency said.

By comparison, total retail sales rose 6.5 percent to $367.8 billion in March, and ticked up 0.8 percent from February.

The figures are adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes.

Earlier this month Costco and Target reported mid- to high-single-digit comp-store gains in March, but continued weakness in their CE businesses.