Are you planning to set up an e-commerce site with WordPress, or sell products online? If so, you should think about providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency converting software tools allow your visitors to have the price of an international currency transaction converted into their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Some of the many useful features of this useful plugin include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of online store plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Supports full language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP server installation.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP 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 configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you want something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another option, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you want the exchange rates to update by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings according to your own preferences and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when you have configured this section …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any of your WP site’s posts or pages using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no programming skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell goods on your website for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To do this, just add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 47.00, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to your page or post …
After publishing the post or page, the converted currency amount will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once your page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr 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 e-commerce pages targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …
After publishing your content, the currency conversion will then display as you can see in the screenshot below …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your site’s sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol 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, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you choose another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)