In an upcoming blog post Wednesday, PayPal CTO James Barrese said his company is creating two new extensions for Magento’s 150,000 merchants. The first, called In-Aisle Selling, hooks PayPal’s point-of-sale mobile payments service Here directly to a merchant’s store. Here lets a salesman to take a credit or debit card payment anywhere in the store with PayPal’s triangular magnetic reader, while Magento’s ordering and inventory system pulls down all purchase and customer details.

The second extension is called Order Ahead, which lets merchants set up shop in PayPal’s mobile app. In January, PayPal launched a pilot project with one of its key mobile payments customers, Jamba Juice. Customers could access Jamba Juice’s menu from the app, place an order while waiting in line or before they arrived — even make special substitution requests — and of course pay for their drink.

Barrese said the pilot was a success and now it’s expanding Order Ahead, starting with Magento merchants. Stores can use specialized templates to create their menus or catalogs and synchronize their opening hours and locations with PayPal’s ordering system. Merchants can then manage the pre-orders through a simple console available in the extension or directly integrate Order Ahead into their existing point-of-sale systems using Magento’s APIs. Customers can pick up their orders either by presenting their names, order numbers or the QR code on their e-receipts.

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A beta project with three of its customers — TaskRabbit, HotelTonight and Wrapp – Venmo Touch allowed you to transfer credit card info from iPhone app to iPhone app, preventing customers from having to re-enter their credit card info every time they did business with a new brand or downloaded a new app. Instead, a customer could just hit the Venmo payment button and enter his or her credit card security code.

Now Braintree is taking Venmo Touch out of beta and offering it to all of its customers (though still only in iOS), and it’s using it as recruitment tool to get new ones. Traditionally Braintree has been the payments processor for e-commerce startups like Airbnb, Uber and Rovio, but now it wants to move into brick-and-mortar retail – or at least power the m-commerce transactions for traditional brick-and-mortar brands. Through a new partnership with Branding Brand — which builds mobile apps for the likes of American Eagle Outfitters, Costco and Crate & Barrel – it hopes to embed Venmo Touch in some pretty high-volume retail apps.

Chicago-based Braintree is already starting to see a big uptick in mobile transactions: $2 billion of its $8 billion in annual transactions are now coming from mobile apps and mobile websites.

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Of course, Square and Braintree have fundamentally different business models, but as they both evolve they find themselves competing head to head. While Square has focused on the small business owner looking to accept credit card payments, Braintree is strictly an e-commerce and m-commerce company handling payments for some of the best-known startups in the business, including AirBnB, Uber, OpenTable, LivingSocial, GitHub and Fab.com.

The model is much more similar to PayPal or Chase Paymentech, which dominate the low-volume and the high-volume end of the e-commerce business respectively. Braintree, however, is trying to bridge the gap between the two. By providing advanced features such as m-commerce, foreign currency processing and high-volume scaling, Ready said Braintree is able to support companies from their birth as tiny startups to their emergence as huge international e-tailers.

Braintree CEO Bill Ready

Braintree began processing foreign currency payments shortly after its launch in 2008, and that’s been one of the key drivers of its growth. AirBnB, which signed up with Braintree shortly after it launched, was able to expand quickly overseas. That allowed AirBnB to head off potential competition from foreign companies emulating its business model, Ready said.

“That’s one of the big reasons startups want to work with us,” Ready told GigaOM. “Startups need to go international much more quickly than they used to. But in order to accept international payments you used to have to go to [a provider] that required you to have hundreds of millions in accounts.”

Until last year, though, Braintree only processed transactions for U.S.-based merchants. In October, after raising a $35 million Series B round, it went overseas, extending payment support to online merchants in Canada and most European countries. It expanded to Australia in November, and Ready said it plans to launch in Switzerland, Norway and Turkey this week, completing its European footprint.

Ready said that international push as allowed it land key overseas customers like Finland’s Rovio, the creator of Angry Birds. In just six months, Braintree has grown that business to the point its processing $2 billion in annualized transactions on foreign shores, Ready said.

Braintree has raised a total of $70 million and is primarily backed by NEA and Accel Partners. Ready said it has 150 employees, most of which are in its Chicago HQ and in two satellite offices in San Francisco and New York City.

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According to the new survey conducted by Chetan Sharma Consulting, mobile payments and commerce will not only get big but they’ll be powered largely by the old-school financial companies. The survey’s participants appear to have arrived at the conclusion that the carriers, Google and even trendy new startups like Square had their chance to jumpstart mobile payments and largely blew it. Now Visa, the banks and more established online payment companies like PayPal will clean up their mess.

When polled, 50 percent of Sharma’s panel identified financial institutions and PayPal as the companies most likely to dominate the m-commerce/payments market. And they expected the overall mobile commerce and retail market to become huge. Almost 60 percent of those polled expect m-commerce to surpass e-commerce by 2016 in North America, with Asia and Europe shortly behind.

Sharma asked his panel a host of questions about all aspects of the mobile industry. Here are some of the most interesting tidbits:

The headline of 2012 was supposed to be the saga of Apple vs. Google fighting it over the smartphone OS, but the big battle turned out to be between Apple and Android proxy Samsung. The courtroom brawl between the two mobile titans was the biggest drama of last year, according to the survey, but respondents expect Google to enter the fray directly in 2013.

Google has for years been perceived as the most open player in mobility, and though that reputation has dipped slightly in the last three years, it’s still well ahead of any other wireless industry company or group in the eyes of Sharma’s survey participants. What’s particularly interesting is that Apple’s already poor reputation for openness fell to an all time low this year. Even the carriers — which traditionally are the most closed of any group — scored higher than the iPhone maker.

Apple may have donned the black hat when it comes perceptions of openness, but that has no impact on how its peers view its prospects for success. When asked who the four most important players in mobile are, nearly 100 percent of respondents both named Apple and Google in their picks. Samsung was named by about 75 percent of the survey, while just over 35 percent of the panel named a major global carrier.

The panel also expects Apple and Google’s respective strengths in smartphones to carry over to the tablet — a segment Apple currently dominates. Some 65 percent or respondents believe Android will dominate in tablet unit shipments, but an even greater number believe Apple will keep its lead in total tablet revenues due to its higher device prices.

In 2012, Apple’s new iPad and iPhone were the most compelling mobile gadgets of the year, but expectations are high that Samsung will best its long-time rival in terms of product innovation this year. After the success of the Nexus 7, a good portion of respondents expect Google to come up with another desirable gadget in 2013. There also appears to be some anticipation of an Amazon smartphone.

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Swirl, a mobile fashion platform that launched out of stealth on Monday, gives shoppers a photo-heavy, social environment for not only discovering clothing and accessories that match their style but that are in their immediate vicinity and might be on sale. The Boston-based startup, which has raised $6 million from Softbank, General Catalyst Partners and other investors, has partnered with more than 200 top retailers at 30,000 stores across the country.

As with other platforms like Fancy and Pinterest, Swirl lets users “clip” (or save) items, as well as share them with friends. But it also gives users one-click access to nearby locations that sell the item.  And, while the app has been pre-populated with more than 100,000 items and accessories from major retailers, the company said that, in the future, it may add boutiques and other stores and let users photograph items they see while browsing to add them to the database.

As shoppers use the platform, the app learns to recommend clothing and brands and, down the line, Swirl might move beyond fashion to home decor and other lifestyle goods stores, the company said.

“It just blew us away that 15 years after the invention of e-commerce and m-commerce it still represented less than 10 percent of the retail volume,” said Hilmi Ozguc, Swirl’s founder and CEO.

Despite the boom in online shopping, he added, 93 percent of fashion items and accessories are sold in-store. So, instead of joining the flock of fashion apps and websites trying to boost e-commerce with flash sales, compensation for users, in-person trials, or subscription models, Swirl sees an opportunity in using the smartphone as a vehicle to learn consumer insights and direct shoppers to locations where they can try on items and make a purchase.

Snapette lets merchants alert users to products they might like

New York-based Snapette, which launched last August as what my colleague Ryan Kim called a “Pinterest for the real world,” operates under a similar online-to-offline thesis. Initially, the app let users photograph and upload pictures of products they spotted in the wild to help other users discover items nearby. In June, it updated its app to let local merchants and brands alert users to products they might like. Users can still browse the app and engage in social activity around the items, but brands can also send push notifications to nearby users about recommended products or special offers and discounts. (The app meters and filters messages to make sure consumers don’t get overwhelmed and annoyed.)

Similarly, mobile app Zoomingo tracks sales from more than 70,000 local retail outlets, as well as the most popular items on Pinterest to help consumers discover and then locate nearby products that match their styles. Through the app, users can follow other members, browse items and vote products up or down. When they spot an item they want to buy, they can purchase it through the site or get the location of the closest store selling it with one click. Users can also elect to receive alerts when items they’ve pinned on Pinterest go on sale.

Shoptiques, a New York-based and Y Combinator-backed startup that launched earlier this year, is mainly focused on bringing the local boutique shopping experience online and it doesn’t prioritize sharing as much as a Pinterest. But, CEO and founder Olga Vidisheva has said a mobile app for driving store traffic is on her roadmap.

Apps expand Foursquare, Yelp behavior to shopping

Foursquare and Yelp are already conditioning consumers to use their smartphones as local guides for restaurants and points of interest, so it makes sense that emerging startups are trying to expand that behavior to fashion, a category in which people often want a tactile experience before they make a final decision. And, given how social and visual fashion can be, it’s fitting that these mobile apps are opting for Pinterest-like environments. This wave of apps is also great for impromptu purchases — traditional commerce sites are great for future-looking purchases, but just like we sometimes need a quick recommendation for a bite to eat, we sometimes need last-minute help finding a pair of black ballet flats.

But though the online-to-offline connection is a step in the right direction, one potential pitfall could be an over-reliance on retailer- and brand-seeded content. It’s understandable that these apps are starting with this kind of inventory – it’s much easier to know which items are available if the brands add them to the database. But much of what makes Pinterest and other similar sites so successful is the authenticity and knowledge that users – not brands – are driving the curation. Consumers can certainly interact with the content and curate to a certain degree on platforms like Swirl and Snapette, but if the apps start to feel too commercial and brand-driven, shoppers might feel less inclined to engage and, ultimately, buy.

With that in mind, Peter Chun, CEO and founder of fashion app Swaag, said that as his app layers in commerce, he’s agnostic to whether it will encourage offline or online behavior. Launched two months ago, Swaag lets people take photos and then tag their clothing with appropriate brands to give fashion-savvy users a place to show off their own style while browsing and getting inspiration from the fashion choices of others. Users can share pictures on social networks and follow members whose style they admire. As it grows, he said, driving consumers to stores is a likely possibility, but the more critical component is preserving the user-generated context.

“The source of the inspiration can be a bigger driver of commerce than whether they have the option to buy online or offline,” he said. “How consumers discovered the item triggers the impulse to buy.”

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While at Mint, Sini watched as 40 percent of the service’s user base went mobile-only. Using his data aggregation and engineering chops, Sini was responsible for serving up an experience that maximized every user experience. Mack said that in hiring Sini, the company is “all in” on mobile and he hopes Sini can translate that experience for One Kings Lane.

One Kings Lane CEO Doug Mack

“We believe in the opportunity that we can own mobile commerce and be one of the stars of the mobile web,” said Mack, adding that “Jean has a stronger vision for mobile than anyone I’ve met.”

Going forward, Mack and Sini said they’ll put a premium on relevant, personalized content, as well as on an uncluttered, fast-as-possible experience.  Other feature possibilities might include using the smartphone camera in creative ways to help users search. They also said mobile could also help inform the web experience as it can teach companies to be minimalist and disciplined without sacrificing function.

One Kings Lane, which was launched by fashion executive Susan Feldman and Alison Pincus (wife of Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus) as a home decor flash sale site in 2009, is on track to double revenue to $200 million this year. In July, the company said 25 percent of its revenue came from mobile, up from 22 percent in June.

Average order values for mobile were also higher in July, with the average iPad order beating desktop by 10 percent and iPhone order topping desktop by 6 percent.

Mobile commerce is still a fraction of the total e-commerce market in the U.S. – 8 percent according to Kleiner Perkins’ Mary Meeker. But it’s growing at a very fast clip. This year, eMarketer estimates that mobile commerce sales will rise 73.1 percent to $11.6 billion.

Other new e-commerce sites, such as Etsy and Fab have also reported strong growth on mobile. In May, six months after launching its iPhone app, Etsy said 20 percent of its users were coming in through mobile and, around the same time, Fab said 22 to 25 percent of weekly sales were from mobile customers.

In looking at mobile, Sini said it’s all about taking advantage of “interstitial time.”

“We live in the Twitter era,” he said, explaining that people take little bursts of free time here and there to check news, send messages and make purchases.

“We need to grab five minutes and make the most of it,” he added.

One Kings Lane Chief Product and Technology Officer Jean Sini

Aside from focusing on mobile, Mack said one of the company’s macro goals is surpassing Pottery Barn as the most visited premium home site, which it expects to do at some point next year.

In addition to adding Sini to the company’s management team, One King’s Lane recently hired VP of brand development Sascha Jamall, previously with Michaels (the arts and crafts stores) and Pottery Barn; VP of legal and general counsel Susan Stick, previously with Skype; and chief people officer John K. Anderson, previously with Quidsi.

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Fortune first broke the story Thursday morning, reporting that the initiative as a new service, but according to The Next Web, the offer is really an extension of the Go Mo program Google launched in November. TNW cited a post on Duda Mobile’s blog that has since been removed from its Website:

“Our hope is that by offering both the education AND the service at no cost for one year, we can help businesses make the shift to mobile more quickly, benefiting both their business as well as us consumers who no longer want to pinch and zoom our way through their regular websites on our phones.”

The service wasn’t exactly expensive beforehand, costing $9 a month, but even a $108 annual fee can be a barrier for entry for a mom-and-pop site with good content but no online revenue stream. Duda keeps its costs low by using templates that automatically plugs content optimized for PC browsers into fields designed to fit into the much smaller footprint of the mobile browser. Duda offers free customization tools as well as gratis support via e-mail and phone.

Google has a significant motivation to bring more Websites mobile. The more phone-friendly content available on the Internet, the more mobile searches Google can generate and the more mobile ad revenues it brings in. From the Fortune story:

Even with the advent of fully capable browsers on current smartphones, many companies are still failing to take even the first step into the mobile space, says Jason Spero, head of mobile sales and strategy at Google. According to Spero, 62% of Google’s top advertisers don’t have a mobile site. “Businesses are kind of late to arrive to this consumer trend, and a large part of that is because they don’t know exactly what to do,” Spero says.

Still this particular promotion isn’t targeting those big advertisers or businesses. Duda’s tools are geared at getting small companies a basic mobile Web presence, not building sophisticated mobile interfaces or m-commerce sites. Duda’s templates don’t yet support Flash, framesets or e-commerce.

Companies that depend on the Internet to generate their revenues have already seen the mobile light. As my colleague Ryan Kim wrote in January, companies ranging from Twitter and Pandora to the newest startups are taking a “mobile first” approach to their services, realizing that the phone and the tablet will ultimately be the primary source of their traffic and profits. Those companies don’t need Google and Duda’s help. It’s the legions of sites out there still unfamiliar with the mobile Web that Google is trying to nudge along.

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