Do you sell goods or services online globally? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion allows your prospects to have the price of an international currency transaction converted to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also lets visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s easy to add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Tool For WordPress
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s also free to install and use on your WordPress web site.
The Currencyr currency conversion plugin includes features like the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! and Open Exchange Rates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard area …
The plugin settings area offers you various configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
You can also specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how frequently you would like the exchange rates to be updated 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 (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this setting …
Configure the rest of the settings to suit your own preferences and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to all of your WP site’s pages or posts using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no technical knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 197.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks after being inserted into a post or page …
After publishing the post or page, the currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
After publishing the post, the currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one you have set 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 (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing the post, your converted currency will then appear as you can see in the example below …
Using The Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website or blog’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an 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 tool will now appear on your site’s sidebar menu 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 a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you enter another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
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 have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group