Are you planning to sell your products online to an international audience? If so, then you should probably think about providing your web visitors with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce site.
Currency converting software tools let your customers have the price of an international currency transaction converted to their home currency when purchasing products on e-commerce sites. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets your customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to your WordPress site via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly calculate the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website or blog.
Some of the many features of this plugin include:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Google, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web hosting company to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install” button …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings section provides several configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by selecting 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 there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings to suit your own needs and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress page or post using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP posts, pages and widgets with no technical skills 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 sell an item on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display your conversion amount in 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 add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 29.95, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks once you have inserted it into a page or post …
When the content has been published, the converted currency will appear as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once the post or page has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like 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 website targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once your page or post has been published, your currency conversion will then display as you can see in the example below …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on your website’s sidebar menu 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 lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you modify this symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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