BLACK Friday may be losing its appeal, analysts have warned.
Consumer group Which? said shoppers have realised that the best way of finding new deals is to track changing prices online.
Gordon Fletcher, retail expert at the University of Salford in England, said that while "post-Thanksgiving holiday urgency" drives the day in the US, the bubble may have burst in the UK.
He said: "In contrast, for some UK retailers Black Friday is now the end-point for longer sales events which effectively diffuse the artificial panic of previous years."
Richard Jenkings, data analyst at credit reference agency Experian agreed, saying the US import was just "the start of a longer, more drawn-out peak season, which begins with most of the activity online and then moves in-store as we get closer and closer to Christmas Day".
However Michelle Greeves, Victoria Square's centre manager, said it had experienced high footfall yesterday.
Speaking before trading ended at 9pm, she said shops had seen a large number of customers although they would not be able to examine sales until Monday.
"It's hard to quantify now but it's felt significantly busier than any day we've had in the last year," she said.
"This year, more than previous years, lots of offers are being carried over the weekend which is wonderful for customers."
Retailers have been reporting better-than-expected online traffic and sales figures, amid reports that the websites of some leading high street retailers including New Look and River Island had been crashing.
John Rogers, chief executive of Sainsbury's Argos, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that between midnight and 1am on Friday the catalogue retailer saw "over 500,000 visits to the website, up 50 per cent year on year".
Currys PC World reported its "highest ever" number of orders - with an increase of 40 per cent on last year - while Carphone Warehouse said orders made on mobiles were up 480 per cent compared to the same time last week.
Explaining the online move Pete Moorey, head of campaigns at Which?, said: "More and more people are now doing research online before they buy".
He added that the only way people would be able to get the best deals was to use a price-tracker over a period of time - something that "we would never be able to know in a high street unless you are going to walk in with a spreadsheet".
Some 14 million shoppers in the UK were predicted to go on a £1.97 billion spending spree on Friday - setting a new record - with more than half spent on the internet.
