Singapore will have its first Retail Centre of Excellence (CoE) thanks to a joint initiative by DFS Venture Singapore (DFS), the Singapore Economic Development Board and Spring Singapore.

DFS signed a memorandum of understanding with the two government bodies on Aug 16.

The Retail CoE aims to improve the retail industry's consumer understanding, through specialised consumer insights and analytics, as well as branding and marketing, and channel and product development.

There will be an in-house DFS team based in Singapore developing areas such as consumer insights and analytics, and the duty-free retailer will also partner local educational institutions to design a specialised retail management programme.