Since the beginning of spring 2025, there have been frequent major movements in Shandong Province's foreign trade sector. Jinan, Qingdao, Weifang, Linyi and other places have successively held multiple "Digital Going Global" foreign trade summits, attracting over 5000 industry experts and enterprise representatives to attend. Through policy lectures, experience sharing, resource docking and other forms, they have injected strong momentum into the development of cross-border e-commerce.

As a major foreign trade province, Shandong is using digital transformation as a lever to work with platforms such as Alibaba International Station to accelerate the layout of small and medium-sized enterprises in the global market and write a new chapter of "digital going global".

Shandong's cross-border e-commerce growth rate leads the country. Public data shows that in 2024, Shandong Province completed foreign trade imports and exports of 3.38 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.5%. Among them, exports exceeded the 2 trillion yuan mark for the first time, with an increase of 7.1%, demonstrating strong resilience and potential. The number of foreign trade enterprises has reached 73000, with an annual increase of over 5000. In addition, in 2024, Shandong's cross-border e-commerce has become a growth highlight, with South Korea being the main market for cross-border e-commerce exports, accounting for nearly 90% of the total export value, with an export amount of 1.09 billion yuan. The Shandong Cross border E-commerce Training Base has been officially unveiled, located in Qingdao and Linyi respectively, and will become an important support for the cultivation of cross-border e-commerce in Shandong's characteristic industrial belt.

The 'Eight First Overseas' Plan Ignites the Transformation Engine

Faced with the new situation of foreign trade, Alibaba International Station officially launched the "Eight First Overseas" plan in February 2025, which helps businesses cope with the uncertainty of the global trade environment and continue the overseas dividend through multidimensional measures such as market expansion, technological empowerment, and cost reduction.

Alibaba International adopts a "steady progress" strategy, accelerating its layout in emerging markets such as Europe while consolidating its presence in the US market. For the US market, the platform provides free tariff calculation tools and intelligent fulfillment solutions to help merchants access more overseas warehouse infrastructure and ensure trade stability. Data shows that after the Spring Festival in 2025, the order volume in the US market will maintain stable growth, while the growth rate in the European market is particularly significant, with a year-on-year increase of over 70% in the order volume of the six core markets. To this end, the platform will double its annual budget and focus on expanding its localized logistics network and payment tools to enhance the purchasing experience for European buyers.

To solve the problem of customer acquisition for new merchants in the early stage of going global, Alibaba International Station has launched a customized "precise efficiency guarantee solution": new merchants can obtain more than 50 business opportunities after 3 months of entry, and reach 180 opportunities after 6 months. Those who fail to meet the standards will be compensated with direct train red envelopes proportionally; At the same time, ensure the quality of business opportunities, and provide compensation if the conversion effect does not meet the standards. The platform achieves full process automation of business opportunity monitoring, settlement, and compensation through AI technology, reducing the operational pressure on merchants. In addition, merchants can try the OKKI Leads AI subscription version for free, using intelligent backing and proactive development functions to expand customer resources.

Alibaba International Station deeply integrates advanced AI models such as DeepSeek R1 and Tongyi Qianwen Qwen 2.5-Max, upgrading four major AI agents including product operation, intelligent marketing, and automatic reception. For example, in the product release process, AI can generate multilingual links that are compatible with the global market with just one click; In the marketing stage, the intelligent product selection and bidding system helps merchants accurately reach their target customers. During the Spring Festival, Yiwu merchants successfully won a $20 million order in the Middle East market through AI tools, verifying the actual effectiveness of the technology.

Collaborative construction of ecological matrix between government and enterprises

Under the promotion of policies, the new business model of Shandong's foreign trade is flourishing. On the morning of February 25th, the "Ten Thousand Enterprises Going Global with Shandong Trade" International Market Development Action Promotion Conference, hosted by the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce, was held in Jinan. At the meeting, the Department of Commerce of Shandong Province released the "Ten Actions for Stable Volume and Quality Improvement of Foreign Trade in 2025", covering multiple aspects such as market development, cross-border e-commerce, and coordinated development of trade and investment. The aim is to promote Shandong Province's foreign trade to achieve stable volume and quality improvement in the complex international economic and trade environment through a series of innovative measures. Alibaba International Station Northern Region has released the "Assisting Shandong's Advantageous Industry B2B Overseas Cooperation Plan" to provide international platform support for Shandong's foreign trade enterprises.

The cooperation between local governments in Shandong Province and Alibaba International Station continues to deepen. Tianqiao District of Jinan City organized over 1500 auto parts enterprises to connect with cross-border resources and promoted over 200 enterprises to achieve digital transformation through the Auto Parts Overseas Exchange Conference; The Commerce Bureau of Shizhong District, in conjunction with Alibaba International Station, held a cross-border transaction fund service launch event to upgrade credit protection services and solve pain points such as credit card chargebacks and returns. Weihai City, through the 8th Cross border E-commerce Summit, invited the top 10 merchants nationwide to share their practical experience, facilitated more than 60 factories to sign contracts with buyers on site, and helped "Made in Weihai" go global.

Currently, Shandong Province is taking digital transformation as a breakthrough point. With the deepening implementation of the "Eight First Overseas" plan, small and medium-sized enterprises in Shandong are expected to accelerate their integration into the global value chain, open up new tracks in the blue ocean of cross-border e-commerce, and provide a "Shandong sample" for the high-quality development of foreign trad.