Do you plan to sell goods online globally? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion lets your customers convert international currency amounts into their local currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows your customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your WP website.
Plugin features include:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google and European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Support for language translations
Note: This 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. Alternatively, ask your web host to update your PHP server installation.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you various configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer something other than the default option ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as 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 select how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by selecting 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 (such as WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the remainder of the settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
When you have configured your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to all of your WP posts or pages using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods on your website for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, just insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 189.00, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look when inserting it into a product page …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once the post or page has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
Once the page has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar area using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your site’s sidebar with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to 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 field.
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 change this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Software Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now