Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling products globally? If so, then you may want to think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion allows your web visitors to have the cost of a foreign currency transaction converted to their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets your visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One advantage of displaying currency conversion is that it allows your customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly understand the cost of your goods.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WP website or blog.
Some of the features of this plugin include:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Supports full language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires 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. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the “Install” button …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin user navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how often you would like the currency exchange rates to update by selecting 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 (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this option …
Configure the remainder of the settings according to your preferences and click Save Changes when finished …
When you have configured your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to WordPress posts and pages using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods on your site for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, just add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 29.95, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being added to a post or page …
After publishing your page or post, the converted currency will display like this …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
After publishing the information, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one set 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 visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
Once your post has been published, the currency conversion will then display as shown below …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
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 enter another symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and 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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