Do you sell goods online internationally? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing your prospects with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion software tools let your customers have the price of an international currency transaction translated to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows your visitors and customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets visitors view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to easily calculate the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress web site.
The Currencyr plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your webhosting support team to 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 menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option (USD) …
You can specify any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. 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 specify how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the remainder of the settings according to your preferences and click Save Changes when you have configured all the options on this screen …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WP post 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, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling an item online for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 97.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look after you have inserted it into the product page …
After your page or post has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing the post or page, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to use a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once the post has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar menu using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your website’s sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you change this symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As mentioned 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 plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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