Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba sold more than $US18 billion ($A25 billion) in goods in the first nine hours of "Singles' Day," the largest shopping day of the year.

Sales on Sunday were already $US3 billion higher than at the same time last year, according to the South China Morning Post, putting Alibaba on target to beat last year's sales record of $US25.4 billion.

Alibaba's Tmall platform saw $US1.44 billion in sales in the first two minutes of Singles' Day, which began at midnight, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Early sales figures are an indication that China's ongoing trade war with the United States has done little to dent domestic consumption so far.

Singles' Day has been a fixture in China since Alibaba turned the "holiday" meant to deride single people into a shopping extravaganza in 2009 by offering deep discounts on a range of products from electronics to travel packages.

Other companies have since followed suit and in 2015 Singles' Day surpassed Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, two of the largest shopping days in the US.

In the lead-up this year's event, there were concerns that Alibaba and other e-commerce sites like JD.com, which runs a similar sale, may be hit hard by new tariffs on US goods.

Washington imposed tariffs on $US250 million worth of Chinese goods since the trade war began in July, while Beijing has imposed tariffs on $US110 million.