in seattle and 11:00 a.m. here on the stock market. "squawk alley" is live ♪ ♪ back in black it's been too long ♪ ♪ let loose >> good black friday morning welcome to "squawk alley." we're going to begin this hour with covid-19's impact on retail and what that means for sales strategies as well for the rest of the year

and for that, we're joined by bertha coombs who explains bertha >> good morning, david we've been here on the plaza mall all morning and quite frankly. the stores are open, people want to be coming inside. there are fresh numbers from adobe and most stores are closed and we did see robust buying up 21% online. up $5.1 billion and these predictions and can you imagine, the e-commerce giants did the most smaller merchants doubled what they normally did. they were up better than 200%. here today, we're seeing quite a bit of the returns they're expecting to see mall traffic down 30% we are seeing a lot of folks

coming in and coming out with lots of bags and what's interesting is that they are parking and shopping rather than just here for pickup pickup lines with mostly empty we saw few lines early this morning. game stop hoping they might be able to do better in person. a lot of people came away disappointed with nothing in hand and tyson's corner in virginia, the line was so long that in the interest of social distancing started taking people's numbers and basically did a virtual cue. they had them -- text them as to when they could come back. we're seeing that here as well stores are having people line up outside so that they can maintain social distancing

inside >> thank you so much for bringing us the latest and this year's emphasis is on e-commerce is where we start with our first guest which is andy dunn. andy, thank you so much for joining us today we had bertha telling us that there were some crowds and brick-and-mortar traffic is declining 30%. what do you expect to see this holiday season base ond what happened yesterday and what is happening today? >> i think we talk a lot about the big players. one of the untold stories is the small merchants coming up and the company that was powering at shopify. and there is zoom stock over the last six months. what's interesting about it is it's like the empire strikes back all the small merchants who want

to and i twha is funny about amazon is it's really a two sided marketplace. customers who love it and suppliers who don't so much and so what i'm seeing in the small merchants that i'm tracking and there is apparel and a really exciting company these businesses are searching i think it's important that we look at the up and comers powered by shopify the really big folks doing well. >> andy, you're giving us a great tease ahead. we're going to be hearing from shopify's president later in the hour thanks for that plug from him. i'm curious. when you look at the big players and walmart and a lot in the e- commerce & walmart also is meant to invest in tiktok. we talked a lot in the past about the importance of social commerce this holiday season what are you seeing in terms of

walmart and tiktok if that deal makes sense for them and what you anticipate in terms of the power of social commerce looking forward through the holidays >> i'm excited about the diverse fiction. i'm excited about it for both sides. you know, if you think about facebook, one thing that blows my mind is in what other industry could you own three of the top five properties and not be deemed monopolistic when you think about the fact that facebook and whatsapp, you it astonishes me that deal went through. amazon going against amazon who are in seven or eight businesses, i think the per view he is going to have as he joins the board of tiktok, figuring out how context continues to converge i'm excited about the combination for those two companies and for the broader ecosystem as well. >> it's different. remember, walmart is not going

to control it necessarily. but as you point out, mcmillan will have influence being on the board. andy, one of the first sort of digitally native companies when you launched your company, what do you now tell would be retail entrepreneurs thinking of doing the same right now what do the checklists look like what are the items they need to know and need to actually get done >> i think it's all about getting the profitability sooner i think we're coming out of the weird age where you had up and coming e-commerce companies that could be losing money as if they're amazon what i'm telling entrepreneurs where i'm involved is, hey, figure out how to get to profits within your first few years. for a decade or two. that's why i'm so impressed. i'm so impressed with the entrepreneurs figuring out how to build specialty retailers in this digital age omni and more out of the gates and i would just highlight the

year into launch obviously i think folks and demise of the small direct to consumer merchants and destroy everything over the next ten year >> there are companies now, and there are a lot of aides to get through more quickly at least in terms of addressing that market that you see perhaps has a need, aren't there >> we went through a lot of growing pains to figure this out. >> it is one of the grael tools and the founder's eye and so if you're launching and you're smart about the lessons in retail about the last decade digital and the right kind of

off line nordstrom is great partner i think you can get to profits within a couple of years on less than $10 or $20 million capital raised they're very healthy coming out of covid-19 where a lot of the competition is struggling. >> andy, where does brick-and-mortar fit into this we just saw bertha reporting from the mall. we're hearing that macy's is turning some of the different fulfillment centers. how is brick-and-mortar going to be for the legacy brands are these digital only brands going forward. >> i think it's important. i think we ran out of there and

bye-bye baby and when i look at my sister's business, we're starting to feature other brands in our few stores. someone that wants to go buy a crib, for example, probably want to go and see that in person take a look at the look and feel and the same thing with a sofa, what interior design is doing. they want to have the tactile experiences. there are more experiences and overall numbers and stores in the marketplace. >> and just a final question on your perspective as an investor. you made dozens and dozens of seed investments. >> i'm excited about other services when you see what is happening in health care, in america, i think that the innovation required to deliver there is going to lead to a lot of brick-and-mortar opportunities in health care i highlightone investment whic

is reel. reel is a mental health company focused on women with some of the mental health journeys i've been on. it's digital right now i imagine when covid-19 -- it's going to be a brick-and-mortar play as well i think we'll see services start to become more and more important. >> fascinating always great to hear your perspective. andy dunn, thank you so much for joining us >> a quick programming note before we take a quick break starting monday on "squawk alley," jon fortt has a bunch of them i'm talking about data center. number two to jeff bezos will be jon's guest. and microsoft's head of azure

jason zander is going to make news with jon on thursday. the series starts this monday, 11:00 a.m. eastern right here on "squawk alley. we're back in just a minute. academy sports + outdoors started as a tireshop in san antonio texas in 1938. our vision is to be the best sports and outdoors retailer in the country with a mission to provide fun for all through strong assortments, value, & experience over the years, we've given customers not just great products, but outstanding experiences. we can't wait to have customers nationwide have fun out there. outstanding experiences. ♪ should auld acquaintance be forgot ♪ ♪ and never brought to mind ♪ should auld acquaintance be forgot ♪ ♪ and auld lang syne

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. nearly every retailer is gearing up for a holiday shopping season set to take place mostly online. we have a wrap on the deals can you find on black friday

>> julia, this year, we're rounding out the hottest items for a covid-19 edition wrap. air pods and play stations are still the rage so are toothbrushes and masks. now people care about their teeth again because they're sitting in front of zooms all day. smile direct club has amazon and walmart and a popular sonicare tooth toothbrush you see the 60% and also a good place to support small businesses where can you find deals on personalized gifts from jewelry to mugs, you can even get your face or a loved one's face on a puzzle etsy shares tripled this year as they've taken advantage of surging e- commerce demand the biggest winner this holiday season is expected to be amazon. the e-commerce giant pushing deals on the expanding catalog of devices and alexa connected

device this is year and it will collect 42 cents eastern they're also in focus. amazon is trying to get ahead of that with a thank you bonus for front line warehouse workers but workers around the world, they're still planning walkouts and other actions. in france, guys, the government postponed black friday entirely in response to shop keepers who say that amazon has been stealing business away from them amid the pandemic. perhaps a good reminder that even as amazon sales and shares rise this year, so does scrutiny of the tech giant. julia? >> i wonder as you look at amazon being such a huge business, 42 cents on the dollar going to amazon of these shopping purchases and the anti-amazon, do you see the trend that people are embracing

the small businesses on etsy as a way to try to help some of the companies that have just not been able to operate during covid-19 and is really an alternative to the amazon behemoth >> certainly etsy is benefiting at the expense of amazon there are different markets for different things can you get the vintage personalized stuff on etsy that you can't get on amazon. there are signs that amazon is pushing into the space of course, they've bfeen pushin the small business angle all year hopefully it will create good will as they're under this antitru antitrust scrutiny and questions around the third party sellers as you look online, that's a good question. perhaps amazon does eat some of etsy's lunch but for now, there is probably enough pie for a lot of e- commerce players >> there is a $20 billion market

value at this point or more. thank you. with us now on where the best tech deals are today and the rest of this holiday season, our cnbc contributor joins us. what should i be thinking about buying what do you guys at the journal think is alluring this season? >> how about a printer router really boring work from home gifts? that's, i think, one big area that we're not really thinking a lot about. sure there recall the sexy xboxes and iphones put people are going to use the opportunity to upgrade the work from home offices which they've been working in for six to eight months and expect, i spoke to makers of routers and printers they're expecting a big surge in buying one, you have the backdrop of covid-19 and people working from

home and then you just have one of the biggest gadget upgrade seasons. google to apple to amazon. so lots of new selections pushing upgrades and then, of course, the gaming systems as well >> joanna, i notice you have the new head set in. there i've been reporting on the vr head sets is this the season that vr is going to take off wonder if you believe that this oculus with the price point could really, you know, be a tipping point for vr >> i think -- i mean we've already seen at least in the early covid-19 lockdown period lots of people trying to buy the oculus that is the second quest the price drop down to $300 is crazy. and the first time there is really such an affordable really good vr head set this is not where you're giving up a lot of fidelity on graphics

power. this thing is crazy g the fact it doesn't -- youdon't need to be tethered to your computer anymore. the battery life is solid and the game and selection of things can you get in the oculus app store is pretty widespread there is social vr so long answer, i think it is still a nerdy thing. but all the pieces are there to at least try to make this as successful as it could be. >> joanna, i have to ask what the work fro home upgrades i bought myself the lum bar pillow i have the laptop stand, to you know, help with my typing so i'm not so hunched over. but the question is when you're talking about these upgrades, haven't a lot of people already invested in this stuff and are these the kind of things that people are going to want to buy for each other

>> i have to admit, i bought a lot of crap over the last year to make my home office as close to my real office as possible. but there are some splurges. i mean, it's not a gadget, per se, i do think that a nice office chair is a very nice gift it's my birthday coming up that's what i asked my family to get me i know that is a super odd thing. i could not have imagined that last year saying i really want an office chair or i really want a new printer. but this is the reality. i think for the bigger ticket items, an office chair, a better printer, even a router, some of the routers are $600 if you have a big house. these are going to be popular items. >> something i did a lot of during quarantine in particular is vacuuming and we're looking that room. have they gotten better? are they pretty effective? do you have any sense there at the journal, have you reviewed the product at all >> i have been living with three

of these robot vacuums my family is not happy with me my dog is very -- he's moving out. my dog is very upset with me it's incredible. they're still loud that is one down side to them. i've been testing that i-3 quest roomba and what is great about that is it sweeps up and goes around the house. it learns your house it is a little loud. but then it goes about a being to its base station and it empties all of the dirt and grossness that it got into it so you don't have to go into it and open it. then you just -- it goes into the base station you take out the bag and empty it so technology, you know. >> wow i never had one. you know, maybe that's -- >> they're pricey. that is a home gadget that is a little pricey. you may not have bought for yourself most of them are upward of $300, $400 there is a big black friday sale on that. you might not have gotten that

>> joanna, david, i did buy a roomba during vivid. it is one of the better purchases i ever made. totally worth it. >> i'm starting to think that julia doesn't have a dog >> we have one i don't know though, he's calm i don't know how he would feel about that thing >> no. thank you. >> they're not riding president and "squawk alley," don't go anywhere

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see yourself. welcome back to the mirror. and know you're not alone because this. come on jessie one more. is the reflection of an unstoppable community in the mirror. video game sales are to a record this year $50 billion expected to be snent

2020 there are no signs of those sales slowing down u.s. consumer spending on video games projected to top $13,000,000,024% from the last holiday season according to npd group. now this comes as more people are playing video and mobile video games than ever before a record 244 million people in the u.s. are estimated to playing games, 30 million more than in 2018 there is a huge demand for just released new generation con soles. the xbox 1-x and play station 5. that demand coupled with supply chain issues due to covid-19 is causing a shortage in fact, that's causing prices on the secondary market to skyrocket. we've seen new play stations listed for up to $60,000 on ebay new games are easily available analysts expect top seller and

activision's call of duty game for the 12th year in a row the holiday season could bring more games to the video game stocks which are up this year. take 2 is up 42% activision is up 29% and ea shares are up 13%. for more on this story, head to cn cnbc.com and "squawk alley" returns in two minutes tax-smart investing strategies, and with brokerage accounts online trades are commission free. personalized advice. unmatched value. at fidelity, you can have both. and distributing fresh hass avocados, serving customers in over 25 countries.

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ncht welcome back. here is your cnn update at this

hour one of the country's top nuclear scientists was assassinated. there are comments on the accusation a black friday fire in walmart in central florida an explosion sent three tractor-trailers ablaze number injuries have been reported. but the walmart shut down temporarily. those not getting xer sties today, they're unite with guidelines and there are 2 1/2 hours of mod troot vigorous aerobic activity per week. and says everyone should limit their time spent being sedentary. >> and some extra shopping money for purdue university staff and faculty. they're getting an appreciation award of $750 each for helping keep the school open during the pandemic and that's our cnbc update over to you. >> thank you, leslie

much needed appreciation for those teachers >> indeed. >> here is retail update for you. adobe saying thanksgiving day online sales hit $5.1 billion. that's a lot of buying for a single day in a pandemic here. this is exactly what they shopify and the company up more than 150% so far this year with us now on blackfriday, shopify and you have access to so much data about what is going on right now what are the big trends you're seeing this year >> thanks for having me. for eight weeks i've been coming on the shoate and saying things are going to be very, different in terms of shopping the center of gravity shifts from in store to online. that is certainly the case as consumers are buying online more than ever. there is another trend on the consumer side which is this idea of conscious consumerism and what is happening is more than shoppers told us in advance that

they were absolutely seeking out local independently owned businesses to support this year. we also know that consumers more than ever are now voting with the wallets to support independent brands and those independent brands are going to lead the retail industry you're seeing this shift way from discounting today nobody 27th, we're seeing companies like alberts, they're increasing their price on everything on their store by $1. and the company said that all proceeds are going to go towards a climate strike movement. you're seeing more of this idea of consumers choosing to back brands and retailers whose values represent their own jim shark and beyond yoga are doing so damn well right now >> multiple bottom lines benefitting fr benefitting from consumerism >> they're getting 42% of all retail dollars this year

the numbers are massive. they're up dramatically and they're not going to be that high or do you that i some of the smaller brands are going to benefit more than maybe some of the the other big box stores or the department stores? >> i think the black friday weekend is now a seasoned, of course, it's happening a lot longer starting a lot earlier. >> we have peak sales per minute globally was about $919,000. that's on permanent basis. and 34% higher than last year. so remember the majority of stores like shopify and independent brands and proxies and u.s. average cart price has increased. $09 from the $86 last year as well we saw that shoppers are using

mobile all this is casing that it looks like brooklynen than the big department stores. let's talk black friday. you're in it right now we surpassed our peak sales at 5:00 a.m. eastern time f you go to shopify.com right now, there is approximately 1.6 million sales happening every minute and about 16,000 orders happening every single minute across shopify that is ai proxy and major shift in retail. again, the independent brands and retailers winning. >> right >> but harley, back to julia's question you're indicating how the pie is expanding dramatically >> are these going to be a place

for these senators. >> they're convenient and focus on discounting and coupons and there is always going to be a place for that to the stuff that you need more and more, as we are in this incredible period of holiday shopping, consumers want to buy stuff they want. they want to have a connection to the products. so i won't speak for whether or not the dominance of the big marketplace are going to change. but i absolutely can attest to the fact that consumers are buying more from independent brands and they're choosing to avoid the large marketplaces if possible. >> so you think -- how would you address a young entrepreneur right now who's got an idea in terms of he thinks there is an unmet need in the marketplace for something? and wants to obviously start and they would start clearly online. what is your advice to them in terms of how to go about getting to profitability as quickly as possible >> david, i heard andy dunn on the show earlier today he had no choice but to build his own in house system for good

obos entrepreneurship is on the rise in q-3 i think the largest since 2004 so you're seeing an increase in entrepreneurship and more entrepreneurs getting started online choosing shopify. they want to own the entire relationship with their customer they don't want to rent customers from the marketplaces. and in terms of the relationship these marketplaces have with those brands, you are seeing brands, big brands like all bs birds decide not to sell through them because they want to sell direct that is mostly happening on shopify. >> harley, you mentioned the price that people are spending per transaction as increased people are spending more per transaction. i know you're partnered with a firm i wonder if you're seeing more people spread out their payments rather than pay for everything

up front as they do -- choose to spend more >> yeah. so whether it's installmentes or shop pay which allows for accelerated checkout, shopify developed and evolved from an e- commerce provider to the first retail operating system. given the variety of merchants on our platform, we talked about bombus and we also have procter & gamble and unileve and the onus is on us, the responsibility is to ensure that no matter what you sell on shopify and what channel you want to access, can you do that from shopify platform. that's why you see us do partnerships with walmart.com. they can push products to walmart if they want you see us doing things with tiktok can you do bible adses directly from shopify to tiktok our responsibility is to the stores to give them the tools they need. with younger consumers becoming a larger part of the purchasing online specifically, they want things like installmentes which

is why shopify pay installmentes is great idea. >> and are people paying for many installments this year? >> they are. installments are going up for some time weechlt been seeing it across the globe in australia for quite some time. it's now coming to north america in a bigger way. we've been offering it with a number of different third parties for a while. now we want to bake it in natively to the shop core offering question do that now >> well, it is really interesting to see how the trends continue to play out, harley i know this is a very busy day for you, busy weekend. thank you so much for joining us >> thanks so much, julia >> sales force may be close to buying slack what will that mean for microsoft and the teams product? we'll break that down after the break. this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions.

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let's turn back to the possibility of salesforce buying

slack, a store reported by "the wall street journal" first i think on wednesday our next guest says don't forget about zoom interest these things don't happen no offense to you. i'm curious why you think it makes sense strategically. >> thank you very much i don't think these things happen very often. i'm not sure it will happen this time there are a full fledged unified communications platform is important. those platforms have a combination of video, voice, and messaging. and today's zoom doesn't have messaging. this he have some chat functionality. but i think that the messaging combined with the leading platform and videos and really powerful tool to really redefine unified communications for both

commercial and increasingly consumer and they're 2021 and can be a really important year for zoom and the consumer segment. and slack could be very apt. >> they have a currency to do it with i assume they have cash as well. i wonder and they either build or something that we're talking about. are they more vulnerable over time >> i think it's incomplete i think messaging is a increasingly popular and important way to communicate about employees and customers and applications i do think that zoom and the dominant, you know, visual and voice communication platforms requires them to have an offering there i that i is something that they've been looking forward to and integrate with over stime

large enterprise companies want one vendor and one security posture to deal with and interact with. so it could put them at a disadvantage again, i don't think it's likely but i do think that it makes a lot of sense that they were going to do it >> alex, what does this all say about what's been going on with slack and the fundamental challenge being just a communications tool where a lot of these enterprise companies already have microsoft and so they can use microsoft teams for free what does that say about slack's role in the marketplace right now? >> it's really interesting slack has a very -- had had a very ambitious goal and has a very ambitious goal to redefine and replace e-mail as a primary medium for all types of communication and interaction, not just communication we think that vision requires a

pretty, you know, aggressive sales organization particularly at the large enterprise where microsoft has a tremendous advantage. one reason i think makes so much sense for salesforce is salesforce distribution organization in the enterprise is unmatched thecht ha they have the best sellers out there. big ambitiouses. you know, i think they take time and i think one of the reasons this acquisition is being considered is because the changes that covid-19 have brought to society and pushing forward this notion of completely different way of working. we call it work 2.0. that takes location away as a dominant variable in the way that people work it goes from a location dependent to a location agnostic world. you have to completely rethink how you work i think every company is doing that right now

there is this tupt to have a really strategic dialogue, a new strategic dialogue with every executive on the planet. >> and so you think then that if sales force does get to the finish line, will they represent a real competitive threat to microsoft in this area >> i think it definitely shakes things up. sales force is nothing if not -- in the word i look for, intuitive or ingenious in the way they think about the future in a very visionary way. he is a very visionary leader. i think it's going to change the competitive dynamic in the marketplace. not just for crm software. increasingly for communications software. >> alex, appreciate you taking all the time with us thank you. >> absolutely. thank you all.

>> and they have been called walmart's secret weapon to take on the co-founder of deliver joins you right after this break. stay with us and first, take a look at etsy the shares up 8.5% the stock trading at highs the highest levels we've seen since it went public back in 2015