Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making goods available for sale globally? If so, then you may want to consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting software lets your site visitors convert international currency transactions to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows your visitors and customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One advantage of showing currency conversion is that it lets your customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
WordPress Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your site.
This plugin includes practical features like:
- Inline converter
- Supports various 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
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr 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 host to update your PHP server installation.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install” button …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP dashboard area …
The plugin settings page offers you many configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
You can specify a data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can 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 as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
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 (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click Save Changes when you have finished configuring all of your options …
After you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to WP pages using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no programming skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell your products for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 197.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look after you have inserted it into your post …
After publishing your post or page, your currency conversion will then display as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing the post or page, the currency conversion will then appear as shown in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to use 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 website targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once your page or post has been published, your converted currency will then display like this …
Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your sidebar with the settings you have selected …
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) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you choose another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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