Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making products available for sale worldwide? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency conversion software allows your prospects to have the cost of an international currency amount translated into their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of providing currency conversion on your site is that it allows visitors to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, it’s really easy and simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to easily calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converter For WP Websites
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WP website or blog.
Plugin features include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Full translation support
Important: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your webhosting provider to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings section by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin menu …
The plugin settings page provides several configuration options …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can specify a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this option …
Configure the rest of the settings and click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring all the options in this screen …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress post using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WordPress posts, pages and widgets without having to edit your web templates using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods on your website for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 37.95, 400.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode should look once you have added it to the page or post …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will display as you can see in the example below …
Using the above example, let’s now translate the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing the page, the converted currency amounts will then display as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European customers (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once your post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you specify another symbol and update your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)