Sometimes the only way to discover real information about eBay is to work backwards, through analysis and deduction...
For example, I took a closer look at listings in this "Buy Canadian" event that fall under one of the categories in which I sell. I filtered results until I got down to a very specific search result (of about 160 items, 3 or 4 pages' worth).
On page 1 of the search results, I noticed that a store-owner seller with less than half my FB score and a fairly low sales volume (5 per month) had 9 of the first 15 listings, and occupied 3 of the first 5 spots, along with one other low-FB, low-volume seller. A couple of other higher-volume non-store sellers were mixed in with the listings between the #6 and #15 spot. One of my items -- and one only -- was listed at #16.
This seemed odd. What was it that gave such prominence to seller #1? I checked the seller's recent sales, which weren't very impressive or numerous, certainly no better than mine. She was a TRS, but so am I. She has a store, but so do I. She has 100% positive FB, but so do I. I have a zero defect rate (I don't know about hers). She was selling similar items to mine, listed in $USD (as I do) at comparable prices and shipping, and had about the same number of total listings for sale. It was the same for seller #2.
It then occurred to me to click on the store icon of seller #1 and #2 -- voilà, there it was. These two sellers each had the "new" store format. I then checked down the list and these 2 sellers occupied, between them, the overwhelming majority of the listings on page 1 of the search results, despite the fact that there were a number of other comparable (or better overall) sellers, all of whom either had the old store format or no store.
Well, well. I can only infer from this that, all other things being equal, eBay's search engines favour new format store owners. I'm also wondering whether this preferential visibility also applies in general, i.e. not just for this "Buy Canadian" event. This is apparently critical information that eBay has neglected to mention to "old style" store owners. But why? You would think they'd tell us in order to entice us away from the old form.
As those of us who have kept the old style store design know, there are features that are not available in the new style stores, such as Promotion Boxes, Store Pages, etc., which allow us to customize our storefronts. This is clearly something eBay no longer wants with its new, one-size-fits-all store design. Is eBay hoping that many of us still stubbornly clinging to the old style will die off and they'll get rid of us by attrition before they make the new format mandatory?
One search raises lots of questions.
