“If you’d asked me two years ago when would PayPal be in retail environments, I don’t think I’d have said ‘by the end of 2011’ but that’s the truth,” blogged President Scott Thompson yesterday.

That belief is underscored by PayPal hiring Don Kingsborough as its new vice president for retail and prepaid products. Previously, Kingsborough served as the founder and chief executive of Blackhawk Network, a prepaid third-party card product leader. There, Kingsborough launched and operated Gift Card Mall Inc. kiosks in retailers across the world.

Beyond the new hire announcement to gain PayPal ground at physical stores, the online payment processor’s play for POS revenue also came up at a recent payment conference. Scott Guilfoyle, senior vice president of platform services and CTO, identified a new mobile market opportunity spurred by the blurring of the lines between online payments and offline purchases. In short: cash and credit cards will be unnecessary.

“The ability to buy things wherever you are …changes the game in a big way,” Guilfoyle said. “Our customers really need a digital wallet. The internet is on the phone, walking around with you.”

That purchase blurriness is a direct result of the accelerated adoption rate of mobile devices – including tablets. In years past, consumers would walk into a Target store or buy a pair of shoes from Zappos, while now, the mobile phone allows a consumer to visit a store, see an item on the shelf, check the phone and see the same item for a cheaper price down the street, illustrated Guilfoyle. And that blurriness should only deepen, widening the doors for innovation. Yet with many eyes focused on the mobile payment market because of advancements in near-field communications and other technology, PayPal is certainly in good competition for that slice of payment pie. Regardless, it does have a number of good things going for it, including eBay as its parent, relationships with retailers, financial networks and consumers, and an open API payments platform. Like Guilfoyle said: “We’re trying to dictate where innovation needs to go.”