Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling products to an international audience? If so, then it’s a good idea to think about providing your potential customers with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency conversion software tools let your prospective customers convert international currency prices to their home currency when purchasing products online. It also allows your customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion is that it allows customers to view 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 a currency converter to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress site.
Plugin features include:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Supports full language translations
Note: This plugin requires 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. Ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the “Install” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin user navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ’USD’ …
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 one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the settings to suit your preferences and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …
After you have configured your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to your WP blog’s pages using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets with no web coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, simply add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 175.00, 29.95, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode will look after being inserted into your page …
After the post has been published, your converted currency amount will display like this …
Using this example, let’s now display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing your post or page, your converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to select a different base currency than the one set as the 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 customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing the post, your converted currency will then display like this …
Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using a forward slash as shown below …
If you enter another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web 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)