Walmart and Amazon will no longer stock merchandise bearing the Confederate flag after the shooting deaths of nine people in a church in the US town of Charleston.
The decision by the retail giants - which have been joined by eBay, Sears and Kmart - comes in a growing movement against what critics say is a symbol of racism in the American South.
Civil rights activists have long pushed for the flag to be removed from official use. The debate has returned to the spotlight after the killings in South Carolina by suspected white supremacist gunman Dylan Roof.
Roof, who appears on a website in photos with the Confederate banner, has been charged with nine counts of murder. All his victims were black.
The battle flag - a red rectangle marked with a blue cross embedded with white stars - is a powerful symbol of the pro-slavery South during the American Civil War. It is seen by some as a symbol of Southern US heritage, but by others as a racist relic of a bygone era.
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Walmart, the world's largest retailer and a staple in the South, said it would remove Confederate flag merchandise from its shelves as a matter of respect.
"We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer," spokesman Brian Nick said in a statement.
An Amazon official confirmed it would remove Confederate flag paraphernalia from its site, but several related items remained in its online store on Tuesday.
Religious leaders, local officials and politicians - including 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton - have joined calls for the removal of the flag from the grounds of South Carolina's state capital Columbia.
"It shouldn't fly there, it shouldn't fly anywhere," Clinton said.
