Fine + Rare traded fine wine through relationships and expertise. Scaling that meant building something that could be personal without a person in the room.
FINE+RARE is a global digital marketplace that connects private collectors and producers with high-end, authenticated wines and spirits. The platform secures the provenance of luxury bottles while managing international cellars through an expansive network spanning from the UK to Napa Valley.
buyers and producers researched
senior designers embedded
month transformation
A global business trading fine wine and spirits on deep expertise and a loyal, high-value customer base. Every sale ran through an account manager, which is why it worked and also why it couldn’t grow.
We researched 26 buyers and 15 producers, designed a marketplace around what we found, and embedded two designers to build it. Personalised service started running through the platform rather than only through account managers.
The business worked. Strong reputation, loyal customers, a proprietary marketplace engine underneath it. But the ambition had changed: from high-touch account management to a platform that could deliver personalised service, content, and commerce at scale.
Everything that made Fine + Rare worth buying from lived in the account manager’s head. A platform that simply listed the stock would have removed the only thing customers were actually paying for.
Over 80% of revenue came through account managers, with limited digital self-service
The online experience lacked the personalisation and storytelling that defined the brand
Supplier onboarding was inconsistent, and there was friction throughout the selling journey
There was no clear product roadmap grounded in customer and supplier needs
The platform carries the service rather than replacing it. Portfolio management, dream cellar wishlisting, a content layer in Fondata, and onboarding built separately for new customers and new suppliers.
Personalised interaction started happening through the platform instead of only through account managers, which is what opened the wider market without giving up what made the business distinctive.
We didn’t hand it over and leave. Two senior product designers embedded, roadmap planning facilitated, and help shaping how they hired.
A 360-degree marketplace vision, modular and personalised
Trust and curation designed into the product rather than assumed from the relationship
Supplier onboarding treated as a first-class journey, not an afterthought
Internal capability built alongside delivery
01
26 buyers and 15 producers, mapping where the experience broke down for each.
02
Co-designed the product direction rather than handing over a document describing one.
03
Two senior product designers inside the team, leading sprints rather than reviewing them.
04
Roadmap planning, hiring strategy and artefacts that aligned leadership, marketing and development on the same picture.
The insights they uncovered allowed us to fuse user and business needs with a design-led roadmap. Thunk certainly delivered. We will be working with them for many years to come.
Patrick O’Connor, CEO, Fine + Rare
A disciplined hunt for value — the structure to explore the unknown without the usual cost of getting it wrong.
1-hour (remote)
Bring us the thing everyone in your organisation disagrees about. We'll tell you what we'd do, whether that involves us or not.
1-day (in person)
One day won't solve everything, but it'll tell you exactly where to start. 'Too many ideas' become one clear plan with the evidence to back it.