Do you plan to sell goods and services online internationally? If so, you may want to think about providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion software tools allow your site visitors to have the cost of an international currency transaction converted to their home currency when purchasing products on e-commerce sites. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One great benefit of displaying currency conversion on your website is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s quite easy to add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to easily determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WP Web Sites
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free!
Some of the useful features of this useful plugin include:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full support for language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your administration menu …
The plugin settings section provides several configuration options …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer something other than the default option (USD) …
You can choose a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how often you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings according to your preferences and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to WordPress website’s posts using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling your products on your website for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To do this, simply add the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 79.45, 295.75, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode will look when inserting it into the post …
Once your content has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same amount 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 appears when you add it to a page …
After publishing your content, the converted currency will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to use a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once the content has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on your sidebar with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum