PayPal and parent eBay have increased their projections for the volume of mobile transactions they will handle this year. The two companies will each handle US$10 billion in mobile transactions in 2012, said John Donahoe, eBay’s CEO, during an analyst call for the company’s Q2 results.  The figures are an increase from previous projections of US$8 billion for eBay and US$7 billion for PayPal. Figures of US$10 billion each would represent more than double the 2011 performances, said Donahoe.

The eBay CEO said consumers who shop on eBay via their mobile phones are three to four times more valuable than those who use only their PCs. During the second quarter, 600,000 shoppers made their first mobile eBay purchase, he said.

However analysts are debating whether growing mobile traffic is incremental to eBay or a displacement of its traditional users.

Overall eBay’s second-quarter revenue rose 23 percent to US$3.4 billion and profits increased by 16 per cent to US$730 million.

In a further reflection of the growing importance of mobile technology to PayPal, the company supplied more information on how it was increasing its presence in offline payments. The company said that two of the 15 nationwide retailers in the US who had signed up to accept PayPal payments in their stores have committed to major rollouts during the quarter. Clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has begun rolling out PayPal point-of-sale technology to more than 900 stores while menswear retailer Jos.A.Bank is introducing the technology across all its 566 stores.

The company also offers its PayPal Here service that enables small businesses to process payments via smartphone or tablet.  During the results, the company said the card reader needed for the service was now generally available in the US and Hong Kong having previously only been offered to selected customers. The company has signed up 300,000 businesses interested in using PayPal Here since its launch in mid-March.