Ebay CEO John Donahoe announced at CES 2012 yesterday that “eBay is projecting 2012 global mobile gross merchandise volume (GMV) to surpass $8 billion.”

As Zach Walton reported yesterday, Paypal also projects that its payment volume will be $7 billion in 2012.

Both eBay and Paypal are riding an ever-climbing wave of sales made on mobile devices – smartphones, tablets, etc. Ebay’s sales volume for mobile sales doubled last year to $5 billion from the nearly $2 billion bar set in 2010. Paypal’s volume was up from $4 billion in 2010 to that $7 billion mark in 2011.

Smartphones and tablets allow consumers to find and purchase items without having to be at a home computer or even laptop. Ebay boasts multiple apps for iPhone that include features that aid in last-minute bidding, research of sales trends, even barcode scanning to help fill in item descriptions. For buyers, the app gives you alerts, price comparison capability with barcode scanning, and, of course, pay in the app.

We reported last week that Walmart is spending tons of money to acquire and develop mobile purchasing position in their market.