Cheering festive figures for iForce 12/01/2012 Figures just released by e-fulfilment and returns logistics business iForce reveal an encouragingly successful 2011. The firm says its figures also provide encouraging news for the high street because, of the 6.2 million orders despatched by iForce throughout 2011 (a four per cent increase on 2010), some two million were ‘collect from store’ orders. That figure is 38 per cent higher than last year, indicating that online retail can also increase footfall in the high street store, says iForce. “This year saw increased emphasis and focus on stock availability and customer convenience, as can be seen from the 38 per cent increase in collect from store orders being handled,” says Mark Hewitt, CEO of iForce. “During the Christmas peak’s busiest week, iForce despatched 317,000 orders (a four per cent increase on 2010) comprising 1.1 million items. “The busiest day of the entire Christmas peak period was actually Boxing Day. The fact that more orders were received on that day than any other day in the year shows that people are looking and waiting for what they see as a keen offer or real bargain,” reports Mark Hewitt.