Houston 6th in online holiday shopping

After seeing pictures of how crowded the malls were this weekend, Houstonist is thinking of embracing this Interweb thing and doing a lot of our holiday shopping online — and we're not alone: According to a recent poll, Houston ranks sixth in the U.S. in online shopping spending for this holiday season.

The AOL Shopping/Zogby International Poll shows that the average Houstonian expects to spend $527.96 online in the next four weeks — a fairly significant amount, but way less than the $1,483.36 our brethren in New York City plan to spend online (New Yorkers will spend the most of anyone online this season, the poll reports). In Houston, 23 percent of shoppers said they'll spend more than half their holiday shopping budget online, and 24 percent said they plan to spend more online this year than they did last year. The most popular online purchases for locals: books and music (65 percent), electronics (36 percent) and clothes (31 percent).

Overall, 82 percent of Houstonians polled said they plan to buy something online this year, which puts Houston squarely in line with the rest of the country: AOL Shopping/Zogby reports that 80 percent of Americans plan to do some online shopping during the holidays. The main reasons: convenience, both in terms of the time it takes to shop and the ease of comparison shopping. Spend a day at the Galleria during the holidays and we're sure you'll understand.