Do you plan to sell products online globally? If so, you should probably consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools let your prospective customers translate international currency pricing to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets visitors view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly determine the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
The Currencyr useful WordPress plugin includes many great features like:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr 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. Ask your web host to upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can also specify any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another option, such as 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 frequently you would like to update the exchange rates 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 (such as WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings according to your own preferences and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without editing code 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 are selling goods for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your amount converted into 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 insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 29.95, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look after being inserted into a page …
After the post or page has been published, your currency conversion will display as you can see in the example below …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
Once your information has been published, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to specify 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 site targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once your information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as seen below …
Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your sidebar with the options you have selected …
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 several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you change the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web 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 WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)