Do you sell products online to an international customer base? If so, you may want to think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion allows your web visitors to have the cost of a foreign currency amount translated to their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors and customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows your customers to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s easy and simple to add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
This plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires 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. Ask your webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP server installation.
***
You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings screen by choosing Currencyr from your WP admin menu …
The plugin settings section offers you various configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can specify a data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to update by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the remainder of the settings according to your own needs and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to any WP post or page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr 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 pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling an item on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 29.95, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks once you have inserted it into your post …
After publishing the post or page, the converted currency will then display as seen below …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will then display as shown in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use 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 website targeted to customers in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once your information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on the sidebar with the settings you have specified …
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 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 field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you modify the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin website)
Congratulations! 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:
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com