Are you planning to sell goods online globally? If so, you should consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your site.
Currency conversion software lets your visitors have the cost of a foreign currency transaction translated into their home currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also allows visitors and customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One advantage of adding currency conversion is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to your site, allowing your customers to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website.
Some of the many features of this great plugin include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins like WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Translation support
Important: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings section by choosing Currencyr from your administration menu …
The plugin settings section provides various configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you want something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
You can choose which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you want the exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Edit the rest of the settings and remember to click the Save Changes button when finished …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily add currency conversion to your WordPress posts or pages using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills or knowledge 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 retail goods for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 97.00, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when added to your page …
After the content has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as shown in the example below …
Using this 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 by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once the page or post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to select a different base currency than the one selected 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 non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once your post or page has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your site’s sidebar with the settings you have selected …
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 the symbol 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) …
Separates all your currency values using a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change this symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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