Are you planning to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods to a global market? If so, you should probably think about providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency converting software allows your site visitors to have the cost of an international currency transaction translated to their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also allows your visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of putting currency conversion is that it lets your customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converter For WP Websites And Blogs
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website.
The Currencyr currency conversion plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full support for language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings page offers you many configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another option, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, you can just ignore this section …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings according to your own preferences and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to WordPress website’s posts or pages using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no web coding skills or knowledge 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 sell your product on your website for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, just add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 47.00, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode should look after being inserted into the page …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will then display as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
Once the page has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode appears when added to a post …
Once the content has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as shown in the example below …
Using The Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your site’s sidebar with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you 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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you choose another symbol and update your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-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 e-commerce website.
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