Do you plan to sell goods online globally? If so, then you may want to consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion tools allow your prospective customers to convert international currency prices into their home currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets your visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Converting 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!
Great plugin features include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Full support for language translations
Important: 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. Alternatively, ask your webhosting support team to upgrade 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 Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you want a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose another option, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how often you would like the exchange rates to be updated by selecting 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 (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, simply ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the settings to suit your own needs and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP post or page using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets without having to mess with your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling an item for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, just insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 79.45, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks after being inserted into a page or post …
When the post has been published, your converted currency will then display as you can see in the example below …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once your content has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as shown in the screenshot below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once the information has been published, the converted currency will then appear like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP user admin 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 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 sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using a forward slash as shown below …
If you choose another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! 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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