Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling products globally? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion allows your prospective customers to translate international currency pricing to their home currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets your 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 on your website is that it lets your customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s easy and simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to your WordPress site, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Useful plugin features include:
- Inline converter
- 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
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins like WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Note: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web hosting support team to upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
You can also choose which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. 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 select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you would like to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The 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, you can simply ignore this setting …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and remember to click the Save Changes button when you have configured all the settings on this page …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without editing your web templates using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail an item online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 97.00, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode will look after being inserted into a product page …
After publishing the information, the converted currency will then appear as shown in the example below …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
After publishing the post, your converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have selected as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
Once the content has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now display on your website’s sidebar with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you specify another symbol and update your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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