NEW YORK >> Walmart said Tuesday it will offer its services to marketplace sellers to handle the transportation of their goods from Asia directly to its U.S. warehouses. In addition, the company will fulfill orders and handle returns from all e-commerce sites, a new approach to bolstering its marketplace business ahead of the holiday season.

For Walmart, the marketplace business has become an important source of revenue as the company tries to close the gap with Amazon in processing third-party sales.

The announcements from the world’s largest retailer follow the divestment of its stake in Chinese e-commerce retailer JD.com last week. Walmart’s efforts show that the company is trying to bring more of its third-party business in-house.

Walmart will also provide cash advances to qualified third-party suppliers and waive peak season storage fees for those who send their inventory to Walmart fulfillment centers before September 30.

These initiatives, announced during Walmart’s annual Marketplace Seller Summit, are designed to help sellers meet holiday shopping demand and prepare for Walmart sales events, which have historically coincided with Amazon’s Prime Day in October.

Over the past year, Walmart has aggressively added sellers to its Walmart.com marketplace, mostly from China. The retailer profits by encouraging these sellers, typically small businesses or independent shops, to use its Walmart delivery network or Walmart Fulfillment Services to fulfill orders and promote their products on Walmart.com.

Sales through Walmart’s marketplace have increased by more than 30 percent in each of the last four quarters, the company said, contributing significantly to the company’s global e-commerce sales, which exceeded the $100 billion mark last year.

Walmart has over 420 million products on its marketplace and more than 100,000 active sellers, more than a third of whom are based in China, according to market research firm Marketplace Pulse. However, Walmart still lags behind Amazon, which has more than 2 million active sellers.

Walmart also said that sellers could ship orders to customers through its fulfillment service at an average price 15 percent cheaper than competitors, although it did not provide details on the competitors. Walmart also offered a service that would transport third-party sellers’ goods from Asian ports of origin directly to its U.S. warehouses.