Co-creation, Sharing, Openness and Integration: The 5th Global Digital Trade Expo's "Silk Road E-Commerce Day" to Unveil New Landscape of Digital Trade Cooperation

[Ebrun Original] Silk Road e-commerce is opening up new horizons for international economic and trade cooperation. Taking e-commerce as a bridge, how can more countries share the development opportunities of the digital economy? How can technological innovation lower the threshold for cross-border trade, enabling platforms, enterprises, goods and services to connect with global markets more smoothly?

During the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo, the 2026 "Silk Road E-Commerce Day" series of events, under the theme of "Co-creation, Sharing, Openness and Integration", will kick off on September 23 in Hangzhou. The events will include the Launch Ceremony & "Silk Road E-Commerce" Resource Matchmaking Conference, the "Silk Road E-Commerce" Themed Exhibition, the "Silk Road E-Commerce Enters Hangzhou" tour, and the "Silk Road Cloud Products" Promotion Week, which will integrate international exchanges, resource matching, city visits, consumption promotion and exhibitions.

Since its inception in 2023, when it first focused on showcasing cooperation outcomes, to 2024 when it strengthened resource matchmaking, and then to 2025 when it further deepened the liaison mechanism with partner countries, the "Silk Road E-Commerce Day" has continuously expanded its content. The highlights of this year's event go beyond the main venue: a conference will form synergies with the host city, online platforms and professional exhibition zones, extending digital trade cooperation from topic-based exchanges to enterprises, industrial parks, markets and consumer scenarios.

01

From "Discussing Cooperation" to "Matching Resources": A Host of Digital Trade Topics Take Center Stage

The Launch Ceremony & "Silk Road E-Commerce" Resource Matchmaking Conference is a key component of this year's series of events.

The event will include sessions such as outcome release, thematic exchanges and roundtable dialogues, focusing on topics including e-CNY cross-border e-commerce payments, "Silk Road E-Commerce" cooperation, as well as investment and enterprise development in the artificial intelligence sector, to showcase the development of cooperation mechanisms and local practical explorations.

Artificial intelligence will be a core topic running through the event. How can AI optimize overseas warehouses, multimodal transport and supply chain fulfillment? Can multilingual content generation, intelligent marketing and intelligent risk control help micro, small and medium enterprises reduce the cost of going global? Faced with market environments in different countries and regions, how can cross-border service standards be better coordinated? The event will bring these industry concerns to the forefront, inviting relevant stakeholders to exchange views from the perspectives of policy, platforms, technology and corporate practice.

This year's event places greater emphasis on connecting resources. Focusing on cross-border operation links such as platforms, payments, logistics, digital marketing, compliance services and industrial internet, all parties will seek entry points for cooperation during exchanges, turning the event theme of "co-creation and sharing" into more concrete cooperation directions.

02

Beyond the Main Venue: Witnessing How Digital Trade Integrates into a City

Digital trade does not only exist on platforms and in data, but is also reflected in specific scenarios of enterprise production, park operation, professional market transformation and urban life.

The "Silk Road E-Commerce Enters Hangzhou" activity will organize representatives from relevant countries and regions to visit key digital trade enterprises, industrial parks and professional markets in Hangzhou, to learn about the development practices of business formats such as digital technology, artificial intelligence, cross-border e-commerce and live commerce in the city.

From intelligent IoT applications of technology enterprises to the display and industrial promotion of AI achievements; from the platform, logistics, payment and talent services of cross-border e-commerce industrial parks to professional markets connecting domestic and international demand through digital channels, representatives will observe in different scenarios how digital technology enters industries, serves enterprises and expands markets.

The event also combines digital economy inspections with urban cultural experiences. Visiting Hangzhou is not only about touring a number of enterprises and parks, but also about understanding how digital trade moves from technological innovation to market application through the city's industrial practices, creating more possibilities for exchanges and cooperation between different countries, parks, universities and enterprises.

03

Gathering at "Silk Road Cloud Products": Bringing Quality Goods from Partner Countries Closer to Chinese Consumers

In addition to conference exchanges and city tours, this year's "Silk Road E-Commerce Day" will also turn its attention to the broader online consumer market.

The "Silk Road Cloud Products" Promotion Week will be mainly held online, and will form linkages with the resource matchmaking conference, the Hangzhou tour and the Silk Road e-commerce exhibition zone. The event plans to collaborate with live streaming agencies and e-commerce platforms to centrally showcase high-quality goods from "Silk Road E-Commerce" partner countries and BRICS countries through forms such as live streaming promotions, online dedicated zones and brand matchmaking.

For brands from partner countries, this is not only a product showcase, but also a window to understand the Chinese consumer market and connect with e-commerce platforms and live streaming agencies; for domestic consumers, it offers access to overseas products with distinctive regional characteristics through online dedicated zones and live streaming events.

From product collection and selection matching to channel cooperation, the "Silk Road Cloud Products" Promotion Week will extend the buzz of the event to the cloud, further leveraging e-commerce's role in connecting production and consumption, as well as domestic and international markets, making open cooperation more tangible, and bringing the fruits of shared development closer to enterprises and consumers.

04

Platforms, Services and Products Gathered in One Place to Present the Full Cross-Border Trade Chain

The "Silk Road E-Commerce" themed exhibition zone plans to set up a 5,600-square-meter exhibition space, focusing on digitally ordered trade, with three major sections for platforms, services and products, to centrally showcase new technologies, new models and new scenarios of the integrated development of e-commerce and artificial intelligence.

The platform section will gather different types of cross-border e-commerce and comprehensive e-commerce platforms, demonstrating the ability of digital platforms to connect global markets with industrial supply; the service section will focus on the whole process of enterprises' cross-border operations, presenting services such as digital marketing, cross-border payments, smart logistics, talent cultivation and compliance risk control; the product section will focus on the two-way supply of domestic products going global and imports from the Silk Road, showcasing AI terminal consumer goods, Guochao (Chinese trendy) products and specialty goods from partner countries.

From platforms to services, from product exports to commodity imports, the exhibition zone brings together different participants in the cross-border trade chain in the same space. Supporting activities such as thematic sharing sessions, industrial forums, talent exchanges and industrial matchmaking will also enable the exhibition zone to not only serve as a place to "view products and technologies", but also to "find platforms, access services and discuss cooperation".

Extending from a conference to a city, from offline matchmaking to cloud-based consumption, and then to the themed exhibition zone presenting the full cross-border e-commerce chain, this year's "Silk Road E-Commerce Day" will showcase the practical paths for digital trade to connect different countries, industries and markets through richer scenarios.

Co-creation means the joint participation of all parties; sharing means more inclusive development opportunities; openness expands broader space for digital trade; and integration creates new connections between technology, industry, markets and culture through exchanges.

This article was first published on the official website of Ebrun.