E-commerce giant Alibaba has raked in 35 billion yuan ($5.75 billion) during Singles Day, China’s biggest online shopping day.

That’s far higher that the 19.1 billion yuan of last year.

Discounts are what prompted the shoppers to spend online. Starting midnight, Tmall’s vendors started cutting prices by 50 per cent or more on selected products from 20,000 Chinese and international merchants including Steven Madden and Gap.

Before the sales, Alibaba’s founder and chairman Jack Ma told media that Alibaba’s sales were expected to hit 30 billion yuan this year’s Singles Day.

Singles day is a pop culture entertaining holiday on November 11 for Chinese to celebrate their bachelor life.