Do you sell any products online globally? If so, you should probably consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency converting tools allow your customers to translate international currency prices into their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows your customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
The obvious benefit of putting currency conversion is that it allows customers to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Great plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full language translation support
Note: 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 web host to upgrade your PHP server installation if needed.
You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin menu …
The plugin settings section provides several configuration options …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default currency is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another provider, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …
Edit the remainder of the settings according to your own preferences and don’t forget to click Save Changes when you have configured this screen …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP post using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no web coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail an item for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To do this, you simply need to insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 189.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode should look after being inserted into your post …
Once the page has been published, the converted currency will display as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
After publishing the information, the converted currency will then appear as shown in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
Once the page has been published, the converted currency will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your site’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
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 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, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change the symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image sourced from plugin site)
***
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
Have you found this tutorial helpful? Please feel free to add your comments below or subscribe to our newsletter and receive more useful online business tips, news and WP tutorials.
[su_note note_color=”#4c4c40″ text_color=”#fefdfd” radius=”2″]Need Help To Manage Your WordPress Site?
The WordPress Maintenance Plan will take the stress out of running your site, allowing you to take care of business… [/su_note]
