Do you sell products online to an international audience? If so, you should probably consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency converting software lets your prospects translate international currency transactions to their home currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets visitors and customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets visitors see 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 and simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to your site via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website.
Some of the many features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Google and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins like WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Supports full language translations
Important: This plugin needs 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 web host to upgrade your PHP.
***
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 you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user area …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings to suit your preferences and click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
Once you have configured your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress page 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, AUD, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail an item online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 47.00, 544.97, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode will look after being inserted into your post …
After publishing the page or post, your converted currency amount will then display like this …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing the post, your converted currency will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing your page, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on your sidebar with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you enter another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)