To merge or not to merge, that is the question

[fmgrowit]

This is a semi vB related question and I really don't know where to go with it.

I started a very primitive ecommerce site about 4 years ago. There was a free associated forum that went with the site builder, so I started a related forum. The forum was relatively successful, but equally (if not more so) primitive as the ecommerce site.

Wanting to provide a better user experience for the forum members, I upgraded the forum to a vB forum. The forum is growing at a regular pace...nothing crazy, but steady. The categorizes are filling up nicely and the membership is top notch. The forum has in effect, become my customer service dept. for the store.

I recently inquired about designing a comprehensive SEO strategy for the store. After the company reviewed the information, I was told that all of the information I have in the forum is what I need to improve the stores ranking. The problem is...the forum and store are two different domain names. I was planning on changing the forum name and incorporating it into the store, but the more I think of it, I think I might be better off doing the opposite.

The forum gets four times the traffic as the eCommerce site.

Can anyone here offer a suggestion to this dilemma?