PayPal is taking a bold step forward with small and medium retail businesses by signing deals with two of the largest payment companies and announcing more than a dozen new retail partners.

The announcement, which came May 24, said that the global payment company had closed deals with Verifone and Equinox Payments, as well as adding 15 retailers to its new point of sale (POS) payment options. In the next few weeks Barnes & Noble, Office Depot, Jamba Juice, Guitar Center, Foot Locker, Tiger Direct, Aeropostale, JC Penney, Nine West and several others will begin implementing PayPal as a payment option at each location’s POS terminals.

According to the PC Magazine story, PayPal struck deals with applications and terminal hardware provider Equinox Payments, as well as the #1 and #2 POS terminal vendors in the world, Verifone and Ingenico. The agreements provide PayPal with access to a very powerful ally, as Verifone claims to provide service to 80 percent of the US’ top 200 biggest retailers.

The newly-added retailers can begin signing on and using the PayPal option on their terminals “immediately”,  an email from a Verifone spokesman stated. The schedules for implementing the new features were to be determined by each merchant.

The email listed Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, Joseph A.  Bank and Toys ‘R’ Us as additional participants.

New PayPal president David Marcus said that the offline POS market accounts for several times the financial opportunity of sales in the mobile realm.

“We’re doing the same thing that we’ve been doing with mobile [sales] for the past five years, and doing that offline”, he said.

Jamba Juice president James White said he thinks these deals will have significant ramifications for the payment business. He said Jamba looked at around 20 different payment options…and still chose Paypal. What’s particularly interesting is that Jamba Juice is also a partner with Google’s Wallet system in five markets, and also has Isis—another payment system—in its Austin and Salt Lake City test markets.

So, while the PayPal option will be found in every Jamba Juice location, the Google and Isis systems will only be found in those test markets. White said the reason for the overall adoption of PayPal and not one of the others was because PayPal was a “more scalable” option.

Clint Jones, president of Equinox Payments, said in a statement on the company's website: “Our partnership with PayPal will give Equinox customers—processors, independent sales organizations, acquirers and retailers—even more choice among value-added services that they choose to run on their Equinox terminals.”

Recently PayPal launched its PayPal Here service, a triangular-shaped credit card reader for both individuals and small businesses to utilize in processing purchases through both iOS and Android smartphones.