Easy Digital Downloads - Aelia Currency Switcher

The surcharge your customer doesn't see coming

Selling digital downloads to another country usually ends the same way: the buyer sees a price in a currency that isn't theirs, their bank converts it, adds a fee for paying in another currency, and the statement shows a different figure.

You don't notice that extra cost in your dashboard, but the customer pays it and your conversion rate ends up paying for it. Easy Digital Downloads - Aelia Currency Switcher tackles exactly that: the price shown is the price charged, in the visitor's currency.

How Aelia Currency Switcher works in your shop

You set up the list of currencies you accept and the plugin shows them in a widget so each visitor can choose. When they do, the shop displays prices and completes the order in that currency, so the amount in the storefront matches the amount paid.

Each order stores the currency it was placed in. Both you and the customer can look it up, and in the admin you see the total in the original currency and in the shop's base currency, handy for balancing the books without a calculator.

It can also detect the visitor's country and set the currency from it, and it filters payment methods by the selected currency, so nobody lands on a gateway that doesn't accept their currency.

Automatic exchange rate or a fixed price per product

This matters most to anyone selling software, templates or courses: a converted price is almost never a round number. You have several ways to control it:

• Exchange rates that update themselves through Open Exchange Rates or WebServiceX.
• Exchange rates entered by hand, if you prefer them not to move.
• A price typed by hand in each currency for each product, without going through any exchange rate.

If the visitor logs in, their preferred currency is remembered and selected automatically on their next visit. Without an account, that memory doesn't work.

It isn't compatible with Easy Digital Downloads 3.0

This is the fact that decides the purchase: the plugin doesn't support EDD version 3.0, whose internal changes make it impossible to extend with multi-currency support. The developer withdrew it from its catalogue for that reason, and the EDD team itself worked on a separate multi-currency solution for the new version. If your shop already runs on 3.0, this plugin isn't what you need.

It also requires the helper plugin Aelia Foundation Classes for Easy Digital Downloads. And here is what it solves and what you have to cover yourself:

• It solves: currency selector, prices and payment in the chosen currency, exchange rates and recording the currency on each order.
• You cover: that your payment gateway accepts each currency you enable; the plugin doesn't enable it for you.
• You cover: signup fees in several currencies and conversion of recurring payments (for example with EDD Recurring Payments), which aren't handled.
• You cover: checking taxes and invoicing for each country with your advisor.

Common questions before enabling several currencies

Can I charge in any currency I add?

No. Whether payment completes in each currency depends on your gateway or payment processor. Check which currencies it accepts before listing them in the selector.

Do I have to trust an automatic exchange rate?

No. You can set the rates by hand or type the price of each product directly in each currency.

Does it remember the visitor's currency?

Yes, but only if they have logged in to your shop. For everyone else, you can rely on country detection.

Does it work for subscriptions?

It isn't what it handles well: signup fees in different currencies and converted recurring payments remain unresolved.