Recently, the Ministry of Commerce officially issued the 2025 National Cross-border E-commerce Excellent Practice Cases. A total of three typical cases in Shandong Province were successfully selected. They are Weifang Nongchuang Port anchoring “online services + offline development” to help Chinese brands go global, Weihai focusing on industrial advantages to promote the integrated development of “cross-border e-commerce + fishing gear industry belt”, and Yantai implementing a new “land and air transport” model for cross-border e-commerce exports from Japan and South Korea.
In recent years, Shandong Province has attached great importance to the development of new business formats such as cross-border e-commerce. By strengthening policy innovation, deepening industrial integration, and optimizing ecological cultivation, it has built a new business development system with deep integration of “policy chain + trade chain + industrial belt”.
Industry experts pointed out that these selected cases are all based on local characteristic industries, integrating the upstream and downstream resources of the industrial chain to form an industrial cluster effect. At the same time, they actively explore the international market, focus on brand building, and enhance the international influence of the brand by grouping overseas and other methods, forming a series of replicable cross-border e-commerce “Shandong practices.”
Opening up the upstream and downstream resource links of the industry and activating the overseas momentum of characteristic industries
In the golden agricultural belt of 36° north latitude, Anqiu City, Weifang, Shandong Province relies on its unique natural ecology to breed high-quality agricultural products and enjoys the reputation of “the world’s food basket”;
Weihai, known as the “Fishing Tackle Capital of China”, has thousands of fishing tackle production and supporting companies, forming a full industrial chain development system covering raw materials, manufacturing equipment, e-commerce, exhibitions and events, etc. Fishing rod sales account for 60% of the global market, and its products are exported to more than 60 countries and regions.
The two places have launched solid exploration on how to fully connect their unique industrial advantages with overseas markets.
Weifang National Agricultural Open Development Comprehensive Experimental Zone gathers the resources of Anqiu’s characteristic agricultural industry belt to create a cross-border e-commerce B2B trading platform focusing on agricultural products and a comprehensive foreign trade service platform Union
Port, build a perfect online service system; at the same time, promote Nongchuang Port to rely on the platform’s overseas resource advantages to achieve cross-regional cooperation, use overseas offline exhibitions and sample experiences to attract overseas buyers, and simultaneously guide them to the platform to complete product selection and transactions, creating an online and offline integrated procurement link.
In addition, the local government also strongly supports agricultural product processing enterprises to align with international standards, accurately assess pesticide residue risks, promote the connection between trading platforms and agricultural product quality and safety comprehensive management service platforms, help settled merchants obtain product quality and safety “ID cards”, and open up quality links at home and abroad.
Weihai relies on the resource advantages of the national foreign trade transformation base (fishing gear) in Huancui District to cultivate leading enterprises and create a shared ecology: on the one hand, it accelerates the reconstruction and upgrading of the fishing tackle industry chain, forming an integrated chain development pattern of upstream carbon cloth and other raw material production, midstream fishing gear and supporting product production, and downstream online and offline integrated sales.
On the other hand, 82% of fishing tackle companies are encouraged to establish quality management systems, leading companies are encouraged to lead or participate in the formulation of national and industry standards, build fishing tackle sharing platform bases, spraying centers and other public facilities, while reducing costs and increasing efficiency while building a matrix brand promotion model of “collective trademark + individual trademark”, and carrying out industry brand cultivation actions.
As of December 2025, the Weifang UnionPort platform has achieved cross-border e-commerce exports of US$1.76 billion, equivalent to more than 12.3 billion yuan, effectively boosting the high-quality development of the regional economy; while Weihai’s fishing tackle industry’s cross-border e-commerce group has achieved remarkable results, and the brand effect is becoming increasingly apparent. The influence of the business card of “China’s Fishing Tackle Capital” covers the world.
Coordinate efforts online and offline to build a cross-border trade service ecosystem
Shandong’s cross-border e-commerce practice is not limited to online transactions, but fully taps the value of offline physical resources to create a service ecosystem covering the entire link.
Relying on the platform’s overseas resource advantages, Weifang Nongchuang Port has physical layouts in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Cambodia, and actively participates in the investment and operation of local economic and trade parks. Through the brand product display center function of Saudi Dragon Mart and Cambodia Dragon Mart, combined with offline exhibitions and sample experience scenes, it guides online transactions, which not only promotes bilateral trade between China and Saudi Arabia, Cambodia and other countries, but also builds a carrier for overseas companies to implement landing services.
In response to the multi-frequency and multi-variety transportation needs of cross-border e-commerce trade between Japan and South Korea, Yantai City took advantage of its geographical advantage of being adjacent to Japan and South Korea, focusing on the key links of cross-border e-commerce exports such as “warehousing-transportation-customs clearance”, and launched Japan-Korea cross-border e-commerce.
A new model of “land and air combined transportation” for export goods: supporting the cargo collection warehouse at the airport, relying on Yantai Airport’s intensive Japan-South Korea freight flights and charter flight resources, superimposing the “optimal customs clearance plan” to achieve “same-day delivery” or “next-day delivery” for goods exported to Japan and South Korea.
Specifically, the local government has built a cross-border e-commerce center for Japanese and Korean consumer goods in the warehousing link, built a golden air channel for cross-border e-commerce in Japan and South Korea in the transportation link, and implemented the “simplified declaration” export model for cross-border e-commerce in the customs clearance link to reduce declaration costs and improve efficiency. At the same time, it has implemented the “optimal customs clearance plan” at the airport to ensure smooth connection between document review, inspection and release.
The full integration of offline resources has injected strong impetus into the development of cross-border e-commerce: In September 2024, Nongchuang Port Saudi Dragon City opened, and in October of the same year, 8,300 square meters of Saudi Arabia
The successful signing and implementation of the China Building Materials Pavilion has injected new vitality into the trade and economic cooperation between China and Saudi Arabia; the Cambodia Dragon Mart project has also greatly promoted the export of Chinese goods to Southeast Asia and helped a large number of Chinese brands land in the Cambodian market with its mature service model.
In Yantai, the current daily order processing capacity of the local warehouse and distribution system can reach 6,000-8,000 orders. Yantai Airport can provide more than 2,000 tons of Japanese and Korean air transport capacity every week, which effectively reduces the operating costs of enterprises. It has attracted a large number of well-known cross-border e-commerce companies and platforms such as Cainiao, Alibaba AliExpress, Pinduoduo, and South Korea’s CoolPeng to launch business. The formation of a high-quality cross-border e-commerce ecosystem is accelerating.
Build together to strengthen brand building and empower industrial upgrading
Industry experts pointed out that in the past, the brand building of Chinese products in the international market was relatively weak. To achieve high-quality development, cross-border e-commerce must strengthen brand cultivation, and Shandong’s practice has just captured this core need.
Weifang Nongchuang Port’s overseas projects in Saudi Arabia and Cambodia have set up brand product display centers. Through overseas offline exhibitions, sample experiences and other scenarios, Weifang has initially established the brand image of Weifang’s “World Vegetable Basket”; at the same time, in order to match the brand positioning, the local agricultural product quality and safety management service center has been established, and a new agricultural product quality and safety comprehensive
The management service platform has formed a full-chain supervision system “from soil to table”. It has also established a national-level research and evaluation base for technical trade measures for food and agricultural products, and established an international standard library for agricultural products covering 56 countries and 1,500 standards, helping agricultural product processing and export enterprises obtain a “passport” to enter the international high-end market.
In view of the scattered characteristics of agricultural business entities, the cross-border e-commerce and comprehensive services of agricultural products in the Weifang Comprehensive Pilot Zone adopt a platform-based operation model, which gathers a large number of cooperatives, family farms and other market entities on the platform, unifies standards, and centralizes empowerment. Through group development, it greatly enhances the international brand image of Shandong’s agricultural products.
Weihai, on the other hand, has specially carried out the “fishing gear industry belt + cross-border e-commerce” cultivation action and organized more than 300 fishing gear companies to participate in various international promotion activities. While empowering companies to “gather together to go to sea”, it has also cultivated the highly influential industry public brand “Weihai Fishing Tackle”.
At present, there are more than 4,000 fishing tackle manufacturing and trading companies in Weihai, and a number of well-known fishing tackle brands have emerged. Some of the leading companies have dozens of various patents and copyrights, and are deployed on multiple cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba. Their products are sold well in more than 100 countries and regions such as Japan, Europe and the United States, and their sales volume ranks among the top online products of the same category.
Industry experts concluded that cross-border e-commerce is not a simple “selling goods” channel, but an important tool and starting point for promoting the transformation and upgrading of local industries: Weifang’s practice has forced the quality of agricultural products to improve with the help of cross-border e-commerce platform construction, and Weihai’s exploration has promoted
The upgrading of fishing tackle industry standards has improved the quality of the entire industry, and Yantai’s model has improved the efficiency and service standards of cross-border logistics. These replicable “Shandong practices” have also provided new ideas for other regions across the country to rely on characteristic industries to develop cross-border e-commerce and promote brands to go overseas.
