Do you plan to sell goods online internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion lets your prospects have the cost of an international currency amount translated into their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows your customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One great benefit of displaying currency conversion is that it allows visitors to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s easy and simple to add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly understand the cost of your goods.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your WP website.
The Currencyr useful WP plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full support for language translations
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your webhosting company to check and upgrade your PHP server installation if required.
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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” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings screen by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin user navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu. The default option is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another provider, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to WordPress pages or posts using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress 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 your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail a product for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To do this, simply insert the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 37.95, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to your post or page …
After publishing the page, the currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once the post has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will then display as seen below …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar menu using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section 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 displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now display on the sidebar with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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