Starting from the specific features of bricolage retail trade (which is part of the ‘Do It Yourself’ – DYI commercial format), this study aims to clarify the concept and structure of innovation in this field, and to present how innovation is perceived and communicated by sellers to customers. The initial literature review is followed by the design of a three-stage research, which consists of a variety of methods, techniques and tools of selective market research. The objectives are to establish the main forms of innovation in DIY trade, the perception and communication of innovation to the customer, and the internal marketing techniques which could deliver higher marketing advantages to the seller. This paper covers only the results of a pilot research conducted via qualitative exploratory research among 13 managers of the bricolage stores in Bucharest. Five hypotheses were tested and confirmed through research. All premises are ready for the scientific construction of research tools for the second and third stages of the study.