The Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holdings processed $5bn sales within 90 minutes on the world’s largest annual online sales promotion day, 11 November, going on to eclipse 2014 sales.

Single’s Day, similar to the US’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, saw 72% of total gross merchandise volume (GMV) processed through Alipay in the first 90 minutes made via mobile.

In the first eight minutes, the company generated more than $1bn in sales, compared to last year’s record of 17 minutes to hit the billion-dollar mark.

By 1pm local time, the e-comms giant had made more than $9.3bn GMV, well above the $2.4bn sold on Cyber Monday.

“At each 11.11, Alibaba’s infrastructure is put to the test and our technological capabilities are taken to the next level,” said Alibaba chief executive Daniel Zhang. “Last year, we handled a record-breaking 80,000 orders at peak per second at peak.

“This year, we expect to handle 120,000 orders and 60,000 payments at peak per second. It will be a proud achievement for us.”

In 2014, $2bn sales were made within the first hour, going on to rise to $9bn total sales with 42.6% GMV sold via mobile.

This comes following yesterday’s announcement that Asda will be taking a step back from Black Friday in the UK this year, following the fighting frenzy caused by last year’s sale – despite Walmart being a leading influence in introducing the concept to Europe.

A representative of the chain expressed that customers are sick of quick sales on expensive non-essential items, revealing that the supermarket will instead cut prices on toys, food, drink and household items but £26m in the weeks leading up to Christmas.