Speaking to BW Retail World, DLF Retail’s Pushpa Bector highlights premiumisation trends, store-led luxury experiences, and expansion beyond metros
Tag Heuer’s first franchise boutique in India, a returning Swiss watchmaker, a heritage distributor in Kapoor Watch Company and DLF providing the address compressed the story of Indian luxury retail’s current moment into a single ribbon-cutting. Standing at the centre of that trifecta is Pushpa Bector, Senior Executive Director and Business Head at DLF Retail, laying out what premiumisation actually means today.
The Partnership Play
The Tag Heuer boutique opening is, on its face, a brand story. But underneath it is a story about how luxury brands are choosing to enter or re-enter India, through trusted local partners who know the market’s textures.
Kapoor Watch Company has been in DLF’s ecosystem from early on. Bector is direct about why that relationship works. “I have very good partners, and Kapoor Watch Company has been with us right from the beginning. They are very good with customer service. They have a strong hold on the market, and what we like is that they are personalised in their ways, and Delhi NCR likes that. So yes, it’s a symbiotic partnership,” she tells BW Retail World.
But she is equally clear that DLF’s primary lens is the brand, not the partner.
“For us, it has to be about the brand. We want the right brand to come in, and we believe Tag Heuer is the right brand for this location, as we are premiumising DLF Mall of India. It just so happens that Kapoor Watch Company has taken this forward,” she adds.
The Omnichannel Argument
The quick commerce threat is the retail industry’s favourite anxiety. Bector isn’t convinced it’s warranted.
“Physical retail has come back after the pandemic with a resurgence. Any brand, be it fashion or others, says that their growth in omnichannel — in which online is around 15-16 per cent, and offline is probably a little more. In a portfolio, most brands are looking at 70-80 per cent of their presence in physical stores because it is experiential in nature,” she remarks.
Her argument is one the data broadly supports that online and offline are not a zero-sum game. Discovery happens digitally. But the transaction, especially for anything experiential, tactile or aspirational still predominantly happens in person. “Customers today are discovering digitally and shopping physically,” she says.
That thesis is backed by DLF’s own financial trajectory. In Q3 FY26, the company posted a net profit of Rs 1,203.36 crore, up 13.6 per cent year-on-year, with revenue climbing 42 per cent. Against a full-year sales target of Rs 20,000–Rs 22,000 crore, DLF had already crossed Rs 16,176 crore in the first nine months of the fiscal year.
The Gurugram Bet
DLF is putting its conviction behind a 25-lakh-square-foot mall in Gurugram, due around 2028. Gurugram has evolved into a fully realised urban economy. Speaking about the project, Bector is rooted in demand, not ambition. “We don’t look at the size. It’s about what’s required for that particular market. Most of DLF has been built in Gurugram, and its customers are looking for a world-class project. Every customer research has said, ‘Where is the mall from DLF?’ Gurugram is a work-to-live city, and they deserve a world-class mall,” she says.
On the specifics, Bector states, “I won’t be able to give details of the size yet but the mall will have everything that is future-forward. It’s going to be a mixed-use development, and we will be anchoring it.”
Mixed-use is the operative phrase – the era of the standalone mall is giving way to integrated developments that combine retail, residential, hospitality, and office space into a single ecosystem.
Curation As Strategy
Adding 30-plus new brands while claiming to premiumise invites a question on whether the scale will eventually undercut exclusivity? Bector disagrees when asked about this and says, “There’s no dilution. Tag Heuer is meant to come to Mall of India because the brand has reached that level. The malls and the customers have reached a level where they will enjoy a Tag Heuer boutique.”
The risk of dilution, she argues, lies with brands, not locations. “The issue of dilution arises only if the brand decides to carpet-bomb the market. But if the brand remains exclusive, knows which properties to go to and sticks to that, then there is no dilution. Fortunately, NCR has grown so much that any good brand can have three stores across Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida,” she adds.
On the experience side, DLF has moved deliberately. The company has shifted from static formats to digital media, including curved LED screens and immersive formats at mall entries to create richer, more layered narratives for customers as soon as they walk in.
And the customer journey, as Bector describes it, is thought through at each touchpoint. “Experience matters from the word go. It starts right from the parking or entry. There are various touchpoints, it could be something engaging in the atrium or something unique in a store. Experience is a holistic package; it’s not just one thing.”
The data point she cites is that a customer in a DLF property typically spends two to three hours and visits eight to ten stores. That kind of dwell time does not happen by accident. It is engineered through zoning, curation and what she calls “right-sizing the product and right-sizing the brand.”
Beyond Metros
Luxury retail in India is no longer a metro city story anymore, at least not in Bector’s reading of the market. DLF is opening in Goa this year, with the Promenade Goa mall scheduled for completion as part of the company’s broader push to grow its rental portfolio. Bector resists the tier-2 label for Goa stating, “You can call it a tier 2 city, but I call it a tier 1 city because many people from Delhi, Gurgaon or Hyderabad have settled there.”
More broadly, she sees India’s urban hierarchy in a state of flux.
“India is in such a rapid growth phase that tier 2 cities will become tier 1. We will have more tier 1 cities, and tier 3 cities will become tier 2, because we are in a rapid growth cycle at this point,” Bector comments.
On DLF’s pipeline of opportunities, Bector shares, “We are always looking for opportunities. We’ve got a lot of land banks, and we’re looking for good projects that justify the fact that we can come up with a strong product there. Goa was a great opportunity, and you will hear of more opportunities soon.”
When asked about DLF’s stated commitment to integrating AI into its real estate operations, Bector doesn’t reveal much but simply states, “We are talking and introducing AI to a few of us. It’s a confidential project but certainly if we don’t, we’ll be a frog in the well. And we are not that.”
For a company of DLF’s scale, 2026 is a year of execution rather than planning. “We are very busy opening three projects this year. We’ve already opened two plazas — we just opened Midtown Plaza and are opening Summit Plaza very soon. We are also opening in Goa,” Bector concludes.
