Do you sell products online worldwide? If so, then you should consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency converting software lets your prospects have the cost of a foreign currency transaction translated to their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious advantage of putting currency conversion on your site is that it lets customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your website using a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free!
The Currencyr useful WP plugin includes features such as:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! and Open Exchange Rates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full language translation support
Important: This 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 web hosting provider to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings area by selecting Currencyr from your administration menu …
The plugin settings section offers you many configuration options …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default currency is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose another option, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by selecting 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 (like WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings according to your needs and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when finished …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling a product on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, just add the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 37.95, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode should look after being added to a product page …
After publishing your post or page, your currency conversion will then appear as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using the above example, let’s now translate the same amount into multiple currency formats.
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 looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing the page, the converted currency will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a post …
Once the page or post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on the sidebar with the options 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 change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values with the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
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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