In the past five years, technologies have changed rapidly driven by advancements in mobile devices including the smartphone and the tablet computer.

According to a recent talk given by eBay president and CEO John Donahoe at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich, retailers should expect to see continued evolutions in their retail point-of-sale software as well, the website Venture Beat reports.

"I believe that you’re going to see more change in how consumers shop and pay … in the next three years, than we’ve seen in the last 20 years," Donahoe told conference attendees, according to the source.

Much of this change will be driven by retailers' need to adapt to multichannel shopping opportunities and the ability of consumers to now research products in-store on their mobile devices. Donahoe called 2012 an "inflection point in retail, shopping and paying."

Target recently took action against a mobile practice it considers detrimental to its business – "showrooming," or checking out products in-store to then purchase them online for cheaper.