Do you plan to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell any products to an international market? If so, then you may want to consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion software allows your prospective customers to convert international currency transactions into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets your visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
This plugin features:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP administration area …
The plugin settings screen provides several configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu. The default option is ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you would like the currency exchange rates to update by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click Save Changes when finished …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily add currency conversion to WordPress blog’s pages using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WordPress posts, pages and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell an item online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 47.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode will look after being inserted into a post or page …
After publishing your post, the currency conversion will appear like this …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same price into multiple currencies.
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 your content …
After publishing the page, the converted currency amounts will then appear as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once the content has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see in the example below …
Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now show on your site’s sidebar menu with the options 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 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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: 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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