Are you planning to set up an e-commerce site, or sell goods internationally? If so, then you should consider providing your potential customers with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software tools allow your prospects to translate foreign currency prices into their home currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets your visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
The obvious benefit of putting currency conversion is that it lets your customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s easy and simple to add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Some of the features of this useful plugin include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & Open Exchange Rates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online store plugins like WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Support for language translations
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your webhosting company to upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin area …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you would like to update the exchange rates by specifying 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 WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the remainder of the settings to suit your preferences and don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have finished configuring this page …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to your WordPress pages using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail a product on your site 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 product sales page.
To do this, you simply need to insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 37.95, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look when inserting it into your product page …
When your information has been published, the currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once your content has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as shown in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial 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 set as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once the post or page has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now show on the sidebar menu with the settings 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 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 field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify the symbol and update your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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