Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling products online? If so, you should consider providing your prospects with a currency conversion tool.
Currency converting software lets your customers convert international currency transactions to their local currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious advantage of showing currency conversion on your site is that it allows customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to your WordPress web site using a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress website or blog.
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to update your PHP.
***
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings page provides several configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu if you want something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
You can also select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose another option, such as European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your needs and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WP page or post using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no programming skills 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 retail a product on your site for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this amount converted into 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 prices in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 22.00, 544.97, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks after you have inserted it into your product page …
After the page or post has been published, your currency conversion will appear as shown below …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing the information, your currency conversion will then display as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change 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 site targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to a post …
After publishing your page or post, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using a forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
WP E-Commerce
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org