San Francisco  - Online shopping is expected to drop for the first time ever this holiday season in a new indication of just how much the average US consumer is cutting back on spending.

The report by web tracking firm Comscore said that online holiday shopping had already dropped 4 per cent in November compared to last year, to 8.51 billion dollars. For the entire season the company predicted that the online shopping total would remain essentially flat at 29.2 billion dollars. That compares to last year's growth of holiday sales by 19 per cent.

The study also focused attention on how badly the economy has deteriorated in recent months. Though holiday spending will be stagnant, overall online spending from January to October was 102.1 billion dollars - a rise of 9 per cent over the same period last year.

"With consumer confidence low and disposable income tight, the first weeks of November have been very disappointing, with online spending declining versus a year ago," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni in a press release. "It's likely that some budget-conscious consumers are planning to wait to buy until later in the season to take advantage of retailers' even more aggressive discounting."

But Fulgoni warned that any worsening of the economic crisis would drive sales down even further. "We have our fingers crossed that the stock market will not go through another 2,000-point meltdown and that the decline in gas prices will build up some cumulative buying power," Fulgoni said. "However, if there is any more significant bad news just over the horizon, all bets are off." (dpa)