Are you planning to set up an e-commerce website, or sell your products worldwide? If so, you may want to consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency converting software lets your customers convert foreign currency pricing into their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also allows your visitors and customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion is that it allows visitors to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s free!
Useful plugin features include:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! & FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce & Shopp.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Supports full language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings screen by selecting Currencyr from your administration menu …
The plugin settings page provides a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default currency is ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another provider, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance 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 plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that 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 them as they are …
Edit the remainder of the settings to suit your preferences and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have finished configuring all of your options …
Once you have configured your settings, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To do this, simply add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 29.95, 129.10, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to the page or post …
After your information has been published, your converted currency will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once your information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to use a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once the information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
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 area, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now show on your website’s sidebar with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you enter another symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
WordPress E-Commerce
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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