NEW YORK, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Walmart ( WMT ) said on

Tuesday it would provide marketplace sellers its services to

handle transportation of their goods from Asia directly to its

U.S. warehouses, as well as fulfill orders and manage returns

from any e-commerce website, in a new approach to bolstering its

marketplace business ahead of the holiday season.

Walmart's ( WMT ) marketplace business has become an important

revenue stream as it seeks to close the gap in handling

third-party sales with Amazon ( AMZN ).

The world's largest retailer's announcements follow the

unwinding of its stake in Chinese e-commerce retailer JD.com ( JD )

last week. Walmart's ( WMT ) efforts show that it is looking

to handle more of its third-party business in-house.

Walmart ( WMT ) will also offer cash advances to qualified

third-party sellers and waive peak-season storage fees for those

who send their inventories to Walmart's ( WMT ) fulfillment centers

before Sept. 30.

These initiatives, announced during Walmart's ( WMT ) annual

Marketplace Seller Summit, are designed to assist sellers in

meeting demand for holiday shopping and preparing for Walmart ( WMT )

sales events. These events have historically coincided with

Amazon's ( AMZN ) Prime Day in October.

Over the past year, Walmart ( WMT ) has aggressively added sellers

to its Walmart.com marketplace, mainly from China. The retailer

profits by encouraging these sellers, usually small businesses

or independent stores, to use its Walmart ( WMT ) delivery network or

Walmart Fulfillment Services to fulfill orders and advertise

their products on Walmart.com.

Sales via Walmart's ( WMT ) marketplace have increased by over 30%

in each of its past four quarters, the company said,

contributing significantly to its global e-commerce sales, which

exceeded $100 billion last year.

Walmart ( WMT ) has over 420 million products on its marketplace and

more than 100,000 active sellers, over a third of whom are based

in China, according to research firm, Marketplace Pulse.

However, it still trails Amazon ( AMZN ), which boasts more than 2

million active sellers.

Walmart ( WMT ) also announced that sellers could ship orders to

customers via its fulfillment service at rates averaging 15%

cheaper than competitors, though it did not provide details on

the competitors. It also offered a service to handle the

transportation of third-party sellers' goods from Asian ports of

origin directly to its U.S. warehouses.