Online holiday shoppers are expected to dip into their pockets more this year then last, but the rate of growth in spending is predicted to slow, Jupiter Media Metrix Co., New York says.

The number of people buying gifts online is expected to reach 35 million this year, a jump of 15 million shoppers from last year.

Shoppers for the months of November and December are expected to empty their bank accounts of $11.6 billion, an increase of $4.6 billion from last year. However, the rate of growth is substantially less than between 1997 and 1999, when spending more than doubled each year. In 1997 people spent $1 billion on the Internet, then $3.1 billion in 1998 and $7 billion in 1999.