Do you sell products online worldwide? If so, then you should consider providing your potential customers with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion tools allow your prospects to have the cost of a foreign currency transaction translated to their local currency when checking out products online. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion is that it allows your customers to 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 powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converter For WP Websites & Blogs
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website or blog.
The Currencyr plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google and Open Exchange Rates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Translation support
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 webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard 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 section by choosing Currencyr from your WP administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another option, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you want the exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WP post or page using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without having to mess with your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell your product on your site for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, simply add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 22.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks after you have inserted it into a page …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will display as shown in the screenshot below …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to your content …
Once the post or page has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one selected 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 (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing your post, your currency conversion will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP user 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 a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now display on your website’s sidebar with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify a symbol of your choice 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 currency amounts using the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change this symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web 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