Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making goods available for sale to an overseas audience? If so, then it’s a good idea to think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion lets your prospective customers translate international currency transactions to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets your customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to your website using a plugin, allowing your site visitors to easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your site.
Some of the many features of this great plugin include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Supports full translations
Important: This 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 webhosting provider to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings screen by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can specify any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can select one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr 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 (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when finished …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to WordPress posts using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling a product on your site for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 29.95, 129.10, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being added to the post …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
After publishing the post, the converted currency amounts will then appear as shown in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, say you have set 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 …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once the post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as shown below …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter will now appear on your site’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different 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 example below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Using The Currencyr Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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