Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling products online? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion software lets your customers convert international currency pricing into their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also lets your visitors and customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s quite easy to add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to your web site via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
The Currencyr currency conversion plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of online store plugins like WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web hosting support team to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field 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 user menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
You can also specify any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another option, such as European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you would like to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down 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, simply ignore this setting …
Edit the remainder of the settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured this page …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP post or page using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without having to edit code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail goods on your site for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To display this information, you will need to insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 37.95, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserting it into a page …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will display like this …
Using the same 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 separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing your page, the converted currency amounts will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to use a different base currency than the one set as the 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 customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once your page has been published, the converted currency will then appear as shown below …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar 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 the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you modify this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to 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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"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)