With Bax Music, previously Bax-shop, brothers Jochanan and Nathanael Bax from Zeeland wrote web store history. Starting in 2003 - four years before the first Webwinkel Vakdagen - they built an online retail giant in music country. They opened stores in the Benelux, explored growth paths beyond the country's borders and achieved annual sales of about 150 million euros at the peak.
How the e-commerce game changed
'When we started, Google was not yet an issue,' Bax says of the company's early years. 'It was the game of Startpagina, Marktplaats and Speurders. Branding was very important then, which is why we also started advertising on the radio early on. Then Google came into play, with the advent of Shopping they became more and more dominant. Webshops became dependent on Google, so did we. About sixty percent of the traffic comes from ads in their search engine.'
The playing field is now changing again, Bax observes: 'We see traffic from LLMs, the language models such as ChatGPT, growing fast. We are now talking about a few percent. That may not seem like much, but there is a huge upward trend. If this continues, in a year you will be at twenty to twenty-five percent.' That calls for new tactics: 'We are full steam ahead here with GEO (generative engine optimization, ed.). You have to be mentioned in those language models when someone asks, "Where is the best place to buy a guitar?" Spot two or three will soon no longer exist; there is only one place and you have to grab it.'
'If I think every day we're going to grow, we're going to grow.'
- Jochanan Bax
Acceptable margins of error with AI
How does Bax Music itself use AI? 'If you're not careful, you jump on all kinds of trains and tools,' says Bax. 'We are now building an internal knowledge base with information from stores, aftersales, customer service and product specialists. We are looking at how we can turn that over to the customer. Point is, of course, that AI can answer ten of the same questions in ten different ways. So important question is: what do you accept as a margin of error for your customers?
Black page
Jochanan Bax talks enthusiastically about his online entrepreneurship, as if he hasn't been away from the company that has carried his last name for decades. Behind the scenes, a conflict that has run high in recent years has played out. A corona debt and a major warehouse fire strained relations. Jochanan found himself up against his brother and other shareholders. He says he was eventually bullied away.
Jochanan Bax was fired early this year after calling in sick. He reveals that the company then had a very successful sales period. "The most successful Black Friday weekend ever, with 30 percent growth and 8 euros more margin per order. To no avail. Critics say he caused organizational and financial chaos. Bax does not deny that he is sailing sharply downwind and that he did not pay taxes for a period: 'Entrepreneurial choices.'
'A combination of clicks and bricks is the winning model'
- Jochanan Bax
Big gamble
After his forced departure, Jochanan Bax did not let go of his baby. When Bax Music went bankrupt, he applied for a relaunch together with investor Stijn Bakkeren. 'He is a CFO by birth,' says Bax. 'The ratio is fifty-fifty, we complement each other perfectly.' It was exciting, though: 'A big bet. Would the employees, suppliers and customers come back? We started fighting tooth and nail to get everything back in place.'
Not without results: '230 of the 240 staff had signed on within two weeks, 236 of the 250 suppliers returned. Conversion rates for products in stock are exactly the same as at the old Bax. We are now at 80 percent of the old sales; I expect us to turn 100 percent again in 2026. That we are back so quickly proves our right to exist.
New phase of growth
Bax is now working on connecting the last major suppliers and building a team for the next growth phase. "We have a bit fewer people on the content teams, because AI can take over certain marketing tasks. On the other hand, I want to invest in personal customer service, to boost levels there.'
Higher margins should help, for example by increasing own brand share from 12 to 20 percent. The omnichannel concept remains leading, says Bax:
'A combination of clicks and bricks is the winning model. Where to go when your guitar breaks down? When we are fully running again here, I want to go local with stores in France and England as well.'
Entrepreneurial lessons
So what has Jochanan Bax learned? 'Never give up, always keep going, is the most important thing. Sounds like an open door, but that's really how it is. When I lost my baby, I was working every day on how to bring it back to me. I could have sat on the couch, but I'm a fighter.'
Bax's entrepreneurial blood is flowing again in full force and he's back in the familiar rhythm. 'I'm a hard worker, sitting here from 5:30 in the morning until late. Many employees like to see that. I make quick decisions, they like that too.' Entrepreneurship is a matter of keeping going, concludes Bax: 'Keep going, keep going, keep going. If every day I think we're going to grow, we're going to grow.'
Jochanan Bax will give an interview about the rebirth of Bax Music at Webwinkel Vakdagen on Thursday, March 26, at 14.45.
