Marc Lore, CEO, Walmart eCommerce
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
Walmart’s e-commerce business leader in the United States, Marc Lore, is leaving the big retailer, almost five years after he sought out the serial entrepreneur to help accelerate his online business, according to a document released Friday. market.
Lore joined the company in 2016, when Walmart acquired Jet.com, the start-up he co-founded, for $ 3.3 billion. The delivery service sent groceries and other household items to younger customers who lived in the city.
With the expensive acquisition, the traditional brick and mortar retailer and its CEO Doug McMillon made a big bet to leverage his digital business and catch up with Amazon. The deal was seen by investors and analysts, in part, as a way for Walmart to gain digital knowledge from Lore and his team. He had deep experience in e-commerce. He also had insights into his fast-growing rival after selling his former company, Quidsi, the parent of Diapers.com, to Amazon for about $ 550 million. He worked for Amazon for several years before starting Jet.com
In an 8K filed on Friday, Walmart said Lore notified the company on Thursday that he would retire from his post in late January. He will serve as Walmart’s strategic advisor until September, the company said. This will fulfill Lore’s five-year commitment to the company when Jet.com was acquired.
The Lore team will report to the CEO of Walmart in the USA, John Furner, according to an email from the entire company. Walmart had previously combined its store and e-commerce teams.
In the email, McMillon credited Lore for the pace of growth in the retailer’s e-commerce and his ability to keep up with online demand during the pandemic. He said Lore led the redesign of the company’s website and app, transformed its supply chain to allow for two-day and same-day delivery and expanded the range of products it sells online.
“Marc’s leadership helped ensure that we were in a position to respond to the demand driven by the pandemic this year,” McMillon said in an email. “All this progress is the result of good work by many people, of course, but Marc’s experience and aggression have changed the game. We learned a lot from him. Personally, I learned a lot from him.”
In a post on LinkedIn, the 49-year-old said he would take a break, but plans to continue working with start-ups.
“Reflecting on the past few years with great pride – Walmart has changed my life and the work we have done together will continue to change the lives of customers for years to come,” he wrote.
Since the acquisition of Jet.com, Walmart’s e-commerce business in the United States has grown dramatically – even before the pandemic. The company reported online sales growth of 37% in the U.S. in 2019, exceeding its own internal growth target of 35%. This has increased even further as customers limit their trips to the store and use collection on the sidewalk during the global health crisis.
It also acquired other digitally native brands, including the men’s clothing company Bonobos and the large women’s brand Eloquii, and launched others such as the Allswell mattress brand.
And more online options are added for customers, from sidewalk pickup to Walmart Express Delivery, which can deliver purchases to customers’ doors in two hours or less. It also partnered with Shopify to expand its online market and struck a deal with second-hand seller ThredUp to sell more brands of clothing, shoes and accessories.
However, some of the initiatives led by Lore have weakened or failed. Jet.com – the start-up that originally caught the attention of Walmart – was officially closed in the spring. Jetblack, an association-based service that allowed customers to order items on demand by sending a text message, became a money loser that was discontinued before being escalated.