Do you plan to sell your products online globally? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing your prospects with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion allows your prospective customers to convert international currency transactions to their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One great benefit of providing currency conversion is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Great plugin features include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank 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 & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Note: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard menu …
The plugin settings section provides many configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
You can specify a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you would like the currency exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the remainder of the settings to suit your needs and remember to click Save Changes when finished …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress page or post using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without having to edit code 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 goods on your site for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, you will need to add the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 29.95, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks when inserting it into your page or post …
When the post has been published, your currency conversion will then display as seen in the example below …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once the page or post has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on the sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify a symbol of your choice 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 currency amounts with a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify this symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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