Are you planning to sell goods online worldwide? If so, you may want to consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your web site.
Currency conversion allows your customers to have the price of an international currency transaction converted into their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One 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 work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, it’s simple to add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your website.
This plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full language translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web hosting provider to update your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option (USD) …
You can specify any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another option, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you would like to update the currency exchange rates by selecting 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 (such as WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the settings according to your needs and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail your products online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 175.00, 22.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks when inserting it into a post …
After publishing your page, your currency conversion will appear like this …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as shown 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 would like to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as your 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 non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
After publishing the information, your converted currency will then appear like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar area using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add the 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 the sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr 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 section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to 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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