Do you plan to sell goods online globally? If so, then you should probably consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion software tools allow your visitors to have the cost of an international currency amount converted into their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets your visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s also free!
Great plugin features include:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Full translation support
Important: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings screen by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how often you want to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this setting …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings according to your own preferences and click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring this screen …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to WordPress site’s pages using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no programming knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell a product on your website for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 197.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode should look after you have added it to your product page …
After your page has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as seen in the example below …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once your post has been published, your converted currency will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as your 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 customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once your content has been published, your currency conversion will then display as shown in the example below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now show on your site’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the 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 section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you select another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and 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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