With national forecasts for holiday sales generally gloomy, the British should be especially glad for the Internet this year. That's because the British are among the world's biggest online shoppers, along with Germans and Austrians, according to a global survey.

In every region of the world, this is likely to be the biggest online shopping season yet, erasing any doubt that the commercial side of the Internet has an impact on the global economy. For November and December, the Internet marketing firm ComScore Networks projects that online sales will total $19 billion, a 24 percent increase over last year.

On the first big day of online shopping this season, the Monday after the U.S. celebration of Thanksgiving, which was Nov. 28 this year, the credit card company Visa said online spending by its cardholders grew 26 percent, compared with the same day a year ago.

Some of that online growth comes from new shoppers. According to a recent Jupiter survey, 114 million online users planned to buy something online this holiday season, a 6 percent jump from last year.

The National Retail Federation said that 47 percent of consumers would make at least one holiday purchase online this year, up from 36 percent three years ago.

Why a Monday rather than on the weekend? Faster Internet connections at the office.

The Nielsen survey, meanwhile, is a font of shopping trivia, showing the vast differences in habits that cultures create, even in something as global as Internet shopping.