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Are you planning to sell goods online globally? If so, then you should probably consider providing users with a currency conversion tool.

Currency conversion software lets your prospective customers have the cost of a foreign currency amount translated to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.

The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.

If you are a WordPress user, it’s really easy and simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to your web site, allowing your customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.

WP Free Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr

Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your site.

Plugin features include 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
• Widgetized currency table and converter
• Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
• Automatically determines local currency
• Translation support

Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your webhosting support team to check and upgrade your PHP.

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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …

Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings screen by selecting Currencyr from your administration menu …

This takes you to the plugin settings page …

For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default option is ’USD’ …

Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …

Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …

You can select how frequently you would like to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …

The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).

If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …

Edit the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have finished configuring this page …

Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to all of your WP posts using widgets.

See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.

Using Shortcodes

You can insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no technical skills or knowledge using shortcodes.

Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:

Let’s say that you sell an item on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.

To display this information, you will need to add the following shortcode to your post or page …

Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 22.00, 399.99, etc …)

The example below shows how your shortcode will look after being inserted into the page or post …

After publishing the content, your currency conversion will appear as shown below …

Using the same example, let’s now translate the same price into multiple currencies.

To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …

The example below now shows how the shortcode looks when added to your content …

After publishing the page or post, your converted currency will then appear as seen below …

See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.

Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.

For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …

Here’s how the above shortcode looks when inserted into your content …

After publishing the post or page, the converted currency will then appear like this …

Currencyr Widget

You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar menu using a widget.

To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress dashboard menu …

In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …

Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …

Your currency converter will now show on your sidebar 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 a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.

You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.

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 modify the symbol and update your plugin settings …

Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …

E-Commerce Software Integration

As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …

(above image sourced from plugin website)

Congratulations! 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:

• WordPress e-Commerce Plugins: A Comprehensive Guide

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