Do you plan to sell products online to an overseas market? If so, then you should probably consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion lets your prospective customers have the price of an international currency amount converted into their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows your customers to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s easy to add a currency converter to your website, allowing your prospective customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress website.
Plugin features include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your webhosting company to update your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard menu …
The plugin settings page offers you several configuration options …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select a data provider from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Configure the remainder of the settings and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …
After you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no technical skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling an item online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To display this information, you will need to insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 97.00, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode will look after being added to a post or page …
After publishing your post or page, your currency conversion will then display as seen below …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
After publishing your page, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to select a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to customers in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once the information has been published, the converted currency will then appear as you can see below …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress 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 below (add the currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to 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, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you choose another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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