Are you planning to set up an e-commerce website, or sell goods or services globally? If so, then you should probably consider providing your potential customers with currency conversion.
Currency conversion allows your visitors to have the cost of an international currency amount translated into their local currency when checking out products online. It also allows visitors to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to your WP website or blog via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to easily determine the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your web site.
The Currencyr currency conversion plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins like WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Supports full translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your webhosting support team to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings screen by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
You can also specify which data provider you want to use 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, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how often you want the exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this option …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings according to your needs and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have configured this screen …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WordPress pages, posts and widgets without having to mess with your web templates using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling goods for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 189.00, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode will look after being inserted into the post …
After publishing your page, your converted currency will then display like this …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when added to a page …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have selected as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once the post or page has been published, the converted currency will then appear as seen below …
Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your sidebar with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change this symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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