Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling products internationally? If so, then it’s a good idea to think about providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency converting software tools let your visitors translate foreign currency amounts to their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it allows customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your WP website, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress website.
Some of the features of this plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Google & FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full translation support
Important: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web hosting support team to update your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin user area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can select a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another provider, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and click the Save Changes button when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes and widgets.
See 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 this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no technical skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling an item on your site for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 79.45, 129.10, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look once you have added it to your page or post …
When your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to your content …
Once the page or post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as shown in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial 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 your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the page or post, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now appear on the sidebar with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you change the symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and 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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