Are you planning to sell goods or services online internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce site.
Currency converting software tools let your visitors translate foreign currency pricing into their local currency when purchasing products on e-commerce sites. It also lets your visitors and customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One great benefit of showing currency conversion is that it lets visitors view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website or blog.
The Currencyr plugin features:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! and Open Exchange Rates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full translations
Important: This plugin needs 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 web host to upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default base currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
You can also specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select another provider, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you want to update the currency exchange rates 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this section …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings according to your own preferences and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP post or page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail goods for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 97.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks once you have added it to your page or post …
Once your content has been published, the currency conversion will display as shown in the example below …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing the post, the currency conversion will then appear as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol 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) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change the symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"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)