Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making goods or services available for sale globally? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting software lets your prospective customers convert foreign currency prices into their local currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also lets your visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it allows your customers to 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, it’s quite easy and simple to add a currency conversion plugin to your WP website or blog, allowing your prospective customers to quickly understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress site.
The Currencyr plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings page by choosing Currencyr from your WP admin user area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
You can specify a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another provider, such as European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this option …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and click the Save Changes button when you have finished configuring all the options in this section …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to WordPress posts or pages using shortcodes.
See 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 this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP posts, pages and widgets without having to edit your web templates using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail your products on your website for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, simply add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 79.45, 400.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look when added to a page …
After the page or post has been published, your converted currency amount will display like this …
Using this example, let’s now 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) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing your information, the currency conversion will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to use a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once your information has been published, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard 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 screenshot below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with a forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Software Integration
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! 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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