Do you plan to sell products online to an overseas audience? If so, you should consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software tools let your prospects convert international currency transactions to their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your WordPress website, allowing your site visitors to quickly work out the cost of your goods.
WP Free Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free!
Some of the useful features of this plugin include:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Google & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Important: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings page provides many configuration settings …
For example, you can select your base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select another provider, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this setting …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and click Save Changes when you have configured all of your options …
After you have configured your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no programming knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling a product on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 47.00, 295.75, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look when added to your product page …
Once your content has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once your page has been published, your currency conversion 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 this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as the default.
For example, say you have specified 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 shortcode appears when added to your content …
Once your post or page has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your site’s sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you choose another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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