Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling products internationally? If so, then you should think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion software lets your customers translate foreign currency transactions to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows your visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One benefit of providing 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 your site is built using WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your website, allowing your visitors to quickly determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s also free to install and use on your WordPress website.
This currency conversion plugin includes practical features like:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Important: This plugin requires 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 plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin navigation menu …
The plugin settings area provides several configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu. The default currency is ‘USD’ …
You can select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another provider, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the settings to suit your own needs and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring all the options in this screen …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WP pages, posts and widgets without having to edit code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, you will need to insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 89.95, 47.00, 400.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look once you have inserted it into a page or post …
After publishing the post, the converted currency will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s also display the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
After publishing the post, your currency conversion will then display as shown below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to select a different base currency than the one set as the 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 non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode appears when added to your content …
After publishing your content, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
How To Use The Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 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 specify another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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