Please consider separating the search from the product list module. This would allow placing the search uniformly within a site. It would be desirable to have both horizontal and vertical layout options, plus the options to turn on/off each search function (allowing either simple or more robust search functions). A further option would be a method of integrating the search into a skin. For totally e-commerce sites, you really are only trying to drive the customer to products. The dnn search while useful is not as "product oriented" as your SmithCart integrated search.

Cheers