Do you plan to sell your products online to a worldwide market? If so, you should think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency conversion software tools let your site visitors have the cost of a foreign currency amount translated into their local currency when checking out products online. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One great benefit of putting currency conversion on your website is that it allows your customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency converter to your WP website, allowing your prospective customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
The Currencyr currency conversion WordPress plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! & FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install Now” button …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP admin user navigation menu …
The plugin settings screen provides various configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
You can choose any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another provider, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the remainder of the settings to suit your own preferences and don’t forget to click Save Changes when you have configured all the settings on this page …
After you have configured your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to your WP site’s posts or pages using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail goods for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To display this information, you simply need to insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 22.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look when added to a page or post …
After publishing the content, your converted currency amount will display as you can see in the example below …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once your page or post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the information, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter will now display on your website’s sidebar menu 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 change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! 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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