Online sales have helped Chinese home appliance makers, especially air conditioner manufacturers achieve sustained business growth amid an industrial slowdown last year, according to a new industry report.

The report published by AVC, a consultancy that specializes in data on home appliances, said online sales of household air conditioners increased 85 percent year-on-year to 9.8 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) in 2014.

Meanwhile, domestic manufacturers sold more than 3.6 million units of household air conditioners via e-commerce platforms, up 93 percent from 2013, according to the report.