Shoply chief executive Vaughan Clark has retired from the company's top job, effective immediate.

Clark's departure after less than two months in the job, comes just two weeks after the online retailer announced it was merging with online distributor of IT accessories and business technologies Anyware.

Clark joined Shoply in 2014 and was promoted to the role of chief executive officer in February.

Shoply says it intends to appoint Anyware boss Garrison Huang as managing director of the group, once the proposed merger between the two businesses is completed.

The merger is expected to be completed around May 2016. In the meantime, Andrew Plympton, Shoply's non-executive chairman, will assume an executive role at Shoply as executive chairman, effective from last Friday.

The proposed merger sees Anyware, through an entity associated with Huang, investing $1 million in Shoply to take a 19.99% share of the combined company.

Shoply says the proposed merger will enhance the scale of its distribution platform for its main product category of business technology equipment, and generally strengthen its competitive position in the online retail industry.