Costco Wholesale posted higher sales in November, but its top line would have been better if Thanksgiving -- and the holiday shopping associated with it -- hadn't occurred so late in the month.

The warehouse retailer on Wednesday said sales rose 5.6% to $21.87 billion during the four weeks ended Dec. 1. Same-store sales increased 3.1%, while e-commerce sales fell by 3.1%.

The timing of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday caused e-commerce sales to be hurt by an estimated 15 percentage points. In turn, this calendar shift lowered total and comparable sales by approximately 1.5%, the company said.