Walmart head of U.S. e-commerce to retire

Jan 15 (Reuters) - Walmart Inc Chief Executive Officer of U.S. e-commerce Marc Lore will be stepping down from his role at the end of the month, a regulatory filing showed on Friday.

Lore was the co-founder of Jet.com, which Walmart acquired in 2016 to bolster its e-commerce ambitions and was later absorbed into the retail giant's own online business.

The move comes at a crucial time for Walmart's online business, as sales on the company's website and app soar with more people avoiding store visits over fears of the spreading coronavirus.

The company said it has unified its store and e-commerce teams, and the combined U.S. omni-channel business will report to Walmart U.S CEO John Furner from Feb. 1.

Lore will serve in a consulting role with Walmart through September.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)