Do you plan to set up an e-commerce web site using WordPress, or sell goods and services worldwide? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency conversion software tools allow your prospective customers to translate international currency amounts to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows your customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
The obvious advantage of putting currency conversion is that it lets your customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converter For WP Websites
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Some of the many useful features of this useful plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of online shopping plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full language translation support
Note: This plugin needs 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. Alternatively, ask your webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select your base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can select which data provider you want to use 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 or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the settings to suit your own preferences and don’t forget to click Save Changes when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
Once you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to WP website’s pages using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets without editing code 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 retail goods online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 175.00, 22.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look after being inserted into the product page …
Once the post or page has been published, the converted currency amount will appear as you can see in the example below …
Using the same 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) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing the information, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to use a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, say 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 added to a page …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
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) …
Separates all your currency amounts with the forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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