Do you sell products online globally? If so, then you should think about providing your prospects with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion tools allow your prospects to translate foreign currency transactions to their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One great benefit of providing currency conversion on your site is that it allows visitors to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out 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 site visitors to easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Plugin For WP Web Sites
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Some of the useful features of this useful plugin include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full support for language translations
Note: 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. Alternatively, ask your web hosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings section by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you want a different currency than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another provider, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want the exchange rates to be updated by specifying 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 (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings to suit your needs and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any of your WordPress posts using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your product on your website for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To do this, simply add the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 19.95, 47.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look after being inserted into your product page …
After your information has been published, your converted currency amount will then appear as shown below …
Using this example, let’s also display the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
After publishing your post or page, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one you have set 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 non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once your post has been published, your converted currency will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …
Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on your sidebar with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with a forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce 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 e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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