Do you sell goods online globally? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools allow your visitors to translate foreign currency prices to their home currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s quite easy and simple to add a currency converter to currency conversion to your WP web site using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to easily work out the cost of your goods.
WP Free Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website or blog.
This useful WP plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google and European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web host to upgrade your PHP server installation if required.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings page by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and click the Save Changes button when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to your WordPress pages or posts using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no programming knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell goods for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To do this, simply add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 189.00, 544.97, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when added to your page …
When the post or page has been published, the currency conversion will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
Using the same example, let’s also translate the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once the post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display as you can see below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once your page has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the 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 select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Software
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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