Do you sell goods online internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting software tools allow your prospects to translate international currency transactions into their home currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets your visitors and customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows your customers to see 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, it’s quite simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Converter For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s also free!
The Currencyr plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full language translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration menu …
The plugin settings area offers you a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option (USD) …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can select one of the other options, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how frequently you want the exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WP pages, posts and widgets without having to edit code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell goods online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 22.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode should look after being added to the page or post …
After your post has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as you can see in the example below …
Using the above example, let’s also display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to a post …
After publishing your content, the converted currency will then display as you can see in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to select a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once the post has been published, your converted currency will then appear as shown in the example below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website’s sidebar menu using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you choose another symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! 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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