Do you sell any products online internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency conversion allows your prospects to convert foreign currency amounts into their local currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also allows visitors to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
The obvious benefit of displaying currency conversion on your site is that it lets your customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your WordPress website or blog, allowing your customers to easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website.
This currency conversion plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full translation support
Important: This plugin requires 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. Ask your web hosting provider 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 “Install Now” …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP dashboard navigation menu …
The plugin settings section provides several configuration settings …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer something other than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can specify a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how frequently you would like to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the remainder of the settings and remember to click the Save Changes button when you have configured all the options in this screen …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to WordPress pages using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) in this plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling an item for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, you simply need to add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 47.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode should look after being inserted into the page or post …
After your page or post has been published, your currency conversion will appear as shown below …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing your post, the currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one you have selected as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
Once the page has been published, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP user admin 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 in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter will now appear on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple 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 you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As mentioned earlier, the 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 site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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