Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or selling goods to a worldwide customer base? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software lets your prospective customers have the price of an international currency amount translated into their local currency when purchasing products online. It also allows your customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion to your website is that it lets your customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your web site, allowing your customers to quickly and easily work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WordPress
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress website or blog.
This currency conversion plugin includes a number of advanced features like the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Note: This plugin needs 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 check and upgrade your PHP server installation if necessary.
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You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings screen by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard area …
The plugin settings section offers you various configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default selection 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’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want the exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this option …
Edit the remainder of the settings according to your needs and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
Once you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can easily add currency conversion to your WordPress posts or pages using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no coding skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling a product for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 19.95, 47.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after being inserted into a post or page …
After publishing the post or page, your converted currency will display like this …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
After publishing your information, the currency conversion will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once the page or post has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
Using The Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now display on your sidebar menu 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 lets you 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 the forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! 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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