First of all, we would like to thank you for purchasing the Aelia Currency Switcher. The following guide will help you setting up our plugin on your system, and increase the reach of your site to an international level in no time. Let's get started! 


1 - Install and activate the plugin

You can find a detailed guide on how to install or update the Currency Switcher in the following article: How to install or update a plugin.


2 - Configure the Currency Switcher

Before configuring the Currency Switcher, you should decide which currencies you are going to show on your site. 


Tips

  • Our recommendation is to enable only the currencies that are most important to your business, as enabling too many could make the site confusing.
  • With the Currency Switcher, payments are processed in the currency in which customers place their orders. Before enabling a currency, please make sure that you are going to be able to access the payments in such currency.


Once you have decided which currencies you will use, you can go to the Downloads > Currency Switcher page, where you will be able to select the currencies. It's now time to start the configuration. 


2.1 - Select and enabled the desired currencies

The following screenshot will show you how to perform the first step of the configuration. After you complete the steps, click on "Save" to update the list of configured currencies, then move to section 2.2, below.

Fig.1 - The first steps to configure the Aelia Currency Switcher


2.2 - Review the currency settings

When the page reloads, you should see a list of currencies, together with the exchange rate assigned to each. 

Fig.2 - An example of configured currencies


If you are happy with the configuration, you won't have to do anything and you can skip to section 2.3, below. If you wish to review and customise the settings for each currency, please keep reading.


The Currency Switcher allows to configure several parameters for each currency. You can find the description of each parameter below. You don't have to change any of the settings 

  • Exchange rate
    This is the exchange rate used to convert an amount from your base currency to the currency indicated in the row. For example, if your base currency is EUR, and you are on the row for USD, an exchange rate of 1.058 indicates that 1 Euro will correspond to 1.058 US Dollars.
  • Set Manually
    This column shows checkboxes that indicates if the exchange rate for a currency will be set manually. We normally recommend not to set exchange rates manually, as the rates you enter will also be used for sales reports and could skew the data. If you don't mind this side effect, you can set the exchange rates manually as follows:
    1. Click the checkbox in the Set Manually column, next to the currency for which you would like to set the exchange rate.
    2. Enter the exchange in the Exchange Rate column. Important: you must enter a valid exchange rate, which must be numeric, greater than zero, and with the point as a decimal separator, or the Currency Switcher will consider the rate invalid. The formatting of the prices on the frontend will still use the decimal separator you configure for the currency.
    3. Repeat for other currencies, as needed.

  • Markup
    The Currency Switcher allows to add a markup to the exchange rate of each currency. The markup is a value that is added to the exchange rate, and it can give you a margin over the actual rate, to compensate for fluctuations. The markup will be added automatically during the conversion of prices for products, shipping and so on.

  • Decimals
    This is the amount of decimals that will be used to round the prices after conversion.


2.3 - Configure geolocation

The Currency Switcher, as well as several other Aelia plugins, includes a powerful geolocation system. The geolocation feature allows the plugin to detect customers' location as soon as they land on your site, and show them the appropriate currency straight away.

Fig.3 - Geolocation enabled, with Euro as the default currency


Enabling the geolocation feature is easy:

  1. Click on the Geolocation tab.
  2. Enable the checkbox to enable the geolocation feature.
  3. Select the default currency. This is the currency that will be served to visitors from countries that don't use any of your enabled currencies. For example, if you enable Euro, US Dollars and British Pounds, a visitor from China will see the default currency.


Tips

  • You can assign a different currency to various countries by writing a simple filter. This allows you to show, for example, USD to visitors from Canada, Mexico and the United States, or Euro to visitors from Denmark, Sweden and Finland. You can find more details in our knowledge base: How to change the currency associated to a country.


2.3 - Enable the appropriate payment options for each currency

The Currency Switcher is able to filter the list of available payment option, depending on the active currency. Since all orders are paid in the currency in which they are placed, by default our plugin disables the payment options for all currencies, to avoid the risk of a customer trying to pay using the wrong payment gateway.


After you save the exchange rates for the first time, the Currency Switcher will inform you if there are currencies for which you didn't set a payment method, and invite you to enable at least one for each currency.

Fig.4 - The Payment Gateways section, showing the reminder to configure some gateways for all currencies


Important

Every time you install a new payment method, you will have to go back to Downloads > Currency Switcher > Payment and enable the new gateway for the appropriate currencies. This is important, or the new method won't appear at checkout.


2.4 - Currency selection options

In this section, you can decide how currency is selected for each customer.

Fig.5 - The Currency Selection options.


The following options are available:

  • Allow to select a currency via the page URL
    By enabling this setting, it will be possible to use a specially crafter URL to change the active the currency. The URL indicated on that page will already contain your site's URL, with the appropriate arguments appended to it.


2.5 - Debug mode, for troubleshooting

The Aelia plugins include a logging system. If you encounter any issue, and the support team instructs you to enable the debug mode, you can find that option in the Support tab. With that option enabled, the Currency Switcher will product a more detailed log of the operations it performs, which will help with troubleshooting. If the plugin works fine, you can keep the Debug Mode disabled.

Fig.6 - The Debug Mode option enabled, showing the location of the log file.


2.5 - Show the Currency Selector Widget on the frontend

This is the last step to complete the configuration of the Currency Switcher. By showing the currency selector widget on the frontend, your customers will be able to choose the currency they like, and place orders in such currency.


You can find the details of how to display the currency selector in the following article: How to show the Currency Selector widget anywhere


3 - Test the Currency Switcher

Your site is now ready to be tested. Here is a simple test flow:

  1. Open the frontend of your shop, and you should see the Currency Selector in the location where you put the shortcode, or the widget.
  2. Select a currency to see the prices being converted.
  3. Add a product to the cart. The price will be the same you saw in the catalogue, in the active currency.The Currency Switcher in action on the Aelia website, showing prices in Euro
  4. Go to the checkout to verify prices and currency. Here you will also see the shipping being converted to the active currency.
  5. Place a test order. The order will be charged in the active currency, for the exact amount.
  6. Check the order emails. They will contain the order details in the currency you used to place the order.
  7. Check the order in the backend. Go to Downloads > Payments, where you will find the order you just placed. You will see its amount in the currency in which it was placed, together with the equivalent in your shop's base currency.


Congratulations!

If everything went well, you are ready to sell to your international customers, in multiple currencies!


Need assistance?

If you encounter any difficulties with the configuration of our Currency Switcher, please feel free to contact us, and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Before You can also consult our knowledge base, to find the answers to the most common questions.