Do you sell goods and services online globally? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools allow your web visitors to have the cost of an international currency amount converted to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors and customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One great advantage of displaying currency conversion is that it lets visitors view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to easily work out the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your site.
Great plugin features include:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of online store plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default currency is ’USD’ …
You can also choose a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how often you want to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this option …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and remember to click Save Changes when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress post using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail an item on your website for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To do this, you will need to insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 97.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being inserted into the product page …
After publishing your page, your currency conversion will appear as shown in the example below …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
Once the post has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select 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 visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing the post or page, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on the sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you change this symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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