Kringwinkel Antwerp has officially deployed its first sharing station, marking a major milestone for both the organisation and the EU-funded Digital Kiosks project.
The beautifully designed station is installed in the display window of Kringwinkel Antwerp’s flagship second-hand store and allows Antwerp residents to rent practical items like a drill, party tent, steam cleaner, sewing machine, speaker and even a karaoke machine. Customers can register to use the service online or by scanning the in-store QR code. After registering, they'll be able to browse through all the items available and reserve the item they want to pick up in store, before returning it for the next user.
The new service represents a significant step toward making borrowing everyday items as simple and convenient as buying them. By offering people the opportunity to rent items within a shop-based environment usually focused on buying, the station promotes circular consumption and builds on Kringwinkel’s long-standing mission to extend the lifespan of products.
This in-store station is the first of two sharing stations currently planned for Antwerp as part of the Digital Kiosks pilot phase, with a second station to be placed next to the donation point outside Kringwinkel’s shop in Deurne.
These sharing stations are part of a wider European rollout: Kringwinkel’s launch is the fifth of 22 sharing stations being deployed across Europe through the Digital Kiosks project.
Each station in Antwerp will host 14 multipurpose items and will test both pay-per-use and membership models to better understand user preferences and the potential for subscription-based access to shared goods. The pilot aims to reach 500 rentals and 150 paying users in its first year.
Looking ahead, Kringwinkel Antwerpen will explore how sharing stations could integrate with other locker-based services - such as parcel pick-up and drop-off - to create multifunctional kiosks that expand the organisation from a primarily product-based business into a more service-oriented model.
As Kringwinkel Antwerpen already has Re-use as the core of its business model, it's important to look at other Re-use models as well. Currently we're focused on selling products, but the true shift that all companies are making now is to also transfer to service.”
With its first sharing station now live, Kringwinkel Antwerpen is helping to advance Europe’s transition to a circular access-based economy - offering practical, affordable and planet-friendly alternatives to ownership. We look forward to announcing the next Digital Kiosks deployments coming to cities across Europe soon.