Do you plan to sell goods online worldwide? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency converting tools allow your visitors to convert foreign currency transactions into their local currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also lets your visitors view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your WP website, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your WordPress website.
This currency conversion plugin includes a number of features like:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full language translation support
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web host to upgrade your PHP server installation.
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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 “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can visit the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you many configuration settings …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu. The default base currency is (‘USD’) …
You can also 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 choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you want to update the exchange rates by selecting 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).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Configure 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 easily start adding currency conversion to WordPress website’s pages and posts using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail a product on your site for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 175.00, 37.95, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look once you have added it to a post or page …
After publishing the page or post, your currency conversion will then display as shown in the example below …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once your page has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to select a different base currency than the one you have selected as your 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 customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing the information, your converted currency will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your sidebar with the options 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 several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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