Do you plan to sell goods and services online internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency conversion allows your prospects to have the cost of an international currency transaction converted into their local currency when purchasing products online. It also allows your visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to your site, allowing your prospective customers to easily work out the cost of your goods.
WordPress Free Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s also free to install and use on your web site.
Some of the many features of this great plugin include:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Translation support
Note: This 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 web hosting support team to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration area …
The plugin settings screen provides a number of configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
You can also select a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option 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’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to update by choosing 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 (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings according to your needs and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets without editing your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell your products on your website for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, simply add the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 197.00, 295.75, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look after you have inserted it into a product page …
When your page has been published, your converted currency amount will then appear as seen below …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
After publishing the post, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below 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 your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages 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 your content …
After publishing your post or page, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your site’s sidebar with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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