Do you sell goods or services online worldwide? If so, then you may want to consider providing your potential customers with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce site.
Currency conversion software lets your web visitors have the price of a foreign currency transaction converted into their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious benefit of putting currency conversion is that it lets visitors see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, it’s simple to add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly understand the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free!
The Currencyr plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Supports full translations
Important: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your webhosting company to update your PHP.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings page by selecting Currencyr from your WP dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select your base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ’USD’ …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown 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 edit the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Edit the rest of the settings and click the Save Changes button when done …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling a product for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To do this, simply add the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (for example, 175.00, 37.95, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after being added to the product page …
After publishing your page, your converted currency will appear as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price 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 looks when you add it to a page …
Once the page or post has been published, your converted currency will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to use 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 website 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 your content …
After publishing the page, the converted currency amounts will then display like this …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now show on your site’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol 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) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(above image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)