E-commerce giant Alibaba has turned an obscure Chinese holiday into the country's biggest shopping event. Now, it is striving to take the success of Singles' Day global by tapping foreign brands and overseas customers.

Many foreign companies, such as Costco Wholesale, Origins Natural Resources and American Eagle Outfitters, participated in Tuesday's event for the first time.

Within 24 hours, various Alibaba platforms sold 57.1 billion yuan ($9.3 billion) of merchandise, eclipsing last year's record of 36.2 billion yuan, according to Alibaba.