The growth in “click and collect” ordering by internet shoppers is helping to drive visitor numbers at an Ipswich shopping centre.

The River Island store within the Sailmakers Shopping Centre says it is on track to handle more than 10,000 parcels this year, with the average of around 200 a week expected to rise to 400 in the run-up to Christmas.

Dannii Hooper, manager at the store, said: “Some people are very much online shoppers and this way we can convert them to calling at the store and perhaps even making another purchase.”

Stacey Southgate, manager at the centre’s Ryman stationery store, added: “It’s definitely working for us because we’re getting quite a few customers coming in.

“Once they’re in the shopping centre they’re always likely to buy something else as well and hopefully they’ll buy something extra here as well.”

Sailmakers Shopping Centre manager Mike Sorhaindo said it was clear that “click and collect” was helping drive footfall.

He said: “We are seeing the numbers visiting the shopping centre continue to rise and part of the increase is down to shops being smarter about online sales.

“Our footfall figures have been very positive for some time with over 600,000 shoppers here in December up 5% on the previous year.

“But our success here is also down to the positive investment in the centre which saw us re-launch last year as Sailmakers after a £4m refurbishment,” he added.