Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling goods to a foreign customer base? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion allows your web visitors to have the cost of a foreign currency transaction converted to their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great benefit of putting currency conversion is that it allows customers to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your WP website, allowing your site visitors to quickly determine the cost of your products.
WP Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your web site.
Some of the many features of this plugin include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Supports full language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user area …
The plugin settings screen provides a number of configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu. The default currency is ’USD’ …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you want the exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
Once you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any of your WP pages or posts using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no programming knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell an item for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 189.00, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after you have inserted it into the post …
Once the content has been published, the converted currency amount will appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once the information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in 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, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing your content, the currency conversion will then display as shown in the example below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from the WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your site’s sidebar menu 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 the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the 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 shown below …
If you modify this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce 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 Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum