Do you plan to sell your products online to a global audience? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting software allows your prospects to have the cost of a foreign currency amount converted to their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of displaying currency conversion on your website is that it lets your customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s quite easy to add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Plugin features include:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full support for language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings area offers you various configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu. The default currency is ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another option, such as FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how frequently you want the exchange rates to update by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this option …
Configure the rest of the settings and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WP page using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WP posts, pages and widgets with no technical skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling a product for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, simply insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 29.95, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to the product page …
Once your post has been published, your currency conversion will then display as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same amount into different 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 shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing your page, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have 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 …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then display as you can see in the screenshot below …
Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter will now display on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with a forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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