Under the background of deepening the development of digital economy, Yongshang overseas has shifted from the extension expansion relying on cost advantages to the mode reconstruction supported by data processing, platform collaboration and intelligent response. Based on the data of Ningbo port throughput, foreign trade import and export and major trading partners from 2022 to 2025, this paper constructs the analysis framework of “digital capability-cross-border cultural adaptation-overseas performance”, and uses the quantitative model to test the effect mechanism of digital capability-overseas mode innovation of Ningbo merchants. The results show that digital capability significantly promotes the optimization of export product structure. The cumulative growth of container throughput is 28.6%, which is significantly higher than that of cargo throughput of 14.1%, and the regression elasticity coefficient of the two reaches 1.68. The proportion of private enterprises’ import and export increased from 72.9% to 77.9%, indicating that they have become the core subject of digital overseas. The average export growth rate of the market with high cultural distance was 18.1%, which was significantly higher than that of the market with low cultural distance (2.6%), indicating that the digital platform, multilingual interaction and user feedback recognition mechanism effectively enhanced cross-border cultural adaptation. This paper argues that digital capabilities not only enhance the market connection efficiency of Ningbo merchants, but also reshape their cross-cultural business logic.
