Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making goods available for sale worldwide? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting software tools let your customers convert foreign currency amounts to their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also allows your visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
The obvious benefit of providing currency conversion on your website is that it lets your customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your web site using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converter For WP Web Sites
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free to install and use on your WP website or blog.
Plugin features include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web hosting support team to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings section provides many configuration settings …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another provider, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how often you want to update the currency 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 (such as WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the remainder of the settings to suit your needs and don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without having to edit your web templates using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell an item for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, simply insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 79.45, 129.10, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to a page …
After the information has been published, your currency conversion will display like this …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once your post has been published, the currency conversion will then display as seen in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have selected as your default.
For example, say you have specified 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 …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will then appear as shown in the screenshot below …
Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar using a 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’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot 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 display on your site’s sidebar with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr 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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values with a forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Currencyr Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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