Are you planning to sell any products online internationally? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion lets your customers translate international currency amounts to their local currency when checking out products online. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of putting currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s easy to add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free!
This plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Supports full language translations
Important: This plugin needs 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 on your server. Ask your webhosting support team to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option (USD) …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can select one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you would like the currency exchange rates to update 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and remember to click Save Changes when finished …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WP page or post using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP pages, posts and widgets with no programming skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail a product on your site for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 97.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a post …
After your information has been published, the currency conversion will then display as shown below …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once the content has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as seen below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to specify a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers from 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 post …
After publishing your information, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter will now display on your website’s sidebar 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 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 section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you enter another symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
WordPress E-Commerce
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
Congratulations! 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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