An upbeat Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will hold its famed annual Singles Day online shopping festival on Nov 11, having posted its fastest quarterly (July-September) sales growth since its record initial public offering in 2014.

Sales surged by 61 percent year-on-year, a historical high, to $8.29 billion, yielding a profit of $2.62 billion, more than double that in the same period last year.

Promptly, the $473 billion e-commerce behemoth, which is based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, raised its outlook for full-year growth, saying it expects sales to grow by 49-53 percent, up from the previous forecast of 45-49 percent.