Struggling online retail giant eBay named a new top executive on Monday, bringing in the former head of e-commerce at Walmart, Jamie Iannone.

Iannone will take over April 27 from interim CEO Scott Schenkel, who took over after Devin Wenig stepped down last year.

Most recently Iannone was chief operating officer of Walmart eCommerce and has some 20 years of experience in retail and digital operations, according to an eBay statement.

Iannone worked previously at eBay for eight years and also was an executive at bookseller Barnes & Noble.

eBay, struggling to keep up with e-commerce giant Amazon, named a former Walmart executive as its CEO on Monday
eBay, struggling to keep up with e-commerce giant Amazon, named a former Walmart executive as its CEO on Monday AFP / Martin BUREAU

"The board believes Jamie is the ideal CEO to lead eBay's next chapter of growth and success," said eBay chairman Thomas Tierney.

"Jamie has consistently delivered high growth during rapid periods of industry disruption, consumer change and technological advancement."

California-based eBay is one of the success stories of the early internet era -- notably for its online auctions -- but in recent years it failed to keep pace with rival Amazon as the two compete as e-commerce platforms.

It has been studying asset sales and its most recent quarter saw a 29 percent drop in net profit.

Last year, eBay agreed to sell its ticket marketplace StubHub to Swiss-based rival Viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash.

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