Do you sell goods and services online to a global market? If so, then you may want to think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency conversion software tools allow your prospective customers to have the cost of a foreign currency transaction translated into their home currency when checking out products online. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One advantage of putting currency conversion on your site is that it lets customers see 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 your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to your web site via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Some of the many useful features of this great plugin include:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Google, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full translation support
Note: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your webhosting provider to update your PHP.
***
You can install the plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you prefer something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you would like to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown 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 them as they are …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings according to your own needs and click Save Changes when done …
Once you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to your WordPress blog’s pages using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no programming knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell an item for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 97.00, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode should look after being inserted into a page …
After the page has been published, the currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once the post or page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want 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 website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing the content, your converted currency will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the 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 conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar menu 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 lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr 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 site)
And there you have it! 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:
***
"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now