Hi! Just a suggestion... please consider splitting the "popular stores" listings into two:
"Your Country" and "International"
Based on user's login, show only popular stores for the buyer's country under "Your Country" and other stores under "International".
If the user is not logged in, show what it shows today.
Just something to consider! Might give a bit more attention to that buyer's country's stores, then... A lot of stores are UK (which is awesome!), but this approach gives the non-UK stores a shot at making the popular store lists for other countries and logged-in buyers (e.g., a US buyer sees US stores under "Your Country", a French buyer sees French stores under that, etc. - but international continues to show all most popular, so as to not take away advertising from the big stores outside the buyer's country. ;-)