Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or selling goods internationally? If so, then you should probably consider providing your potential customers with a currency conversion service.
Currency converting tools let your visitors convert foreign currency transactions into their local currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also allows visitors and customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
This currency conversion WordPress plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Full support for language translations
Note: 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. Alternatively, ask your webhosting support team to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin area …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you want to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings to suit your own preferences and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured all of your options …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling goods online for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, simply insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 189.00, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode will look after you have inserted it into your page or post …
Once the page or post has been published, your currency conversion will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same amount 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) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once the information has been published, your converted currency will then display as you can see in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as your 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 customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once your information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your 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 allows you to specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you enter another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and 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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