Are you planning to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods or services internationally? If so, you should consider providing your web visitors with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency conversion allows your site visitors to have the price of a foreign currency transaction converted to their local currency when checking out products online. It also allows your customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to your website via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website.
Great plugin features include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full support for language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs 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 upgrade your PHP server installation if necessary.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration menu …
The plugin settings page provides many configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
You can also select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you want to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings according to your own preferences and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to WP pages and posts using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without having to mess with code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell an item on your site for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, you will need to add the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 97.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look after being added to the page …
After your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once your page has been published, the converted currency will then appear as you can see below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to select a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
After publishing the page, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on the sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
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 specify another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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