Do you plan to set up an e-commerce site, or sell products online? If so, then it’s a good idea to think about providing your potential customers with the convenience of currency conversion on your web site.
Currency conversion software tools let your visitors convert foreign currency transactions to their home currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets your visitors view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
The obvious benefit of displaying currency conversion on your website is that it lets customers 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, it’s really simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to your website, allowing your customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free!
The Currencyr plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins like WP-eCommerce & Shopp.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install Now” button …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default currency is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can select any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another option, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by specifying 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 (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the remainder of the settings and remember to click the Save Changes button when you have finished configuring all of your options …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can add currency conversion to your WP posts and pages using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills 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 are selling a product for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, you will need to insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 97.00, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after being added to the page or post …
After publishing the post or page, the converted currency amount will then display as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same price into multiple currency formats.
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 looks when added to a post …
After publishing the information, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to specify 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 non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
Once your page or post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as shown in the example below …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, 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 area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr 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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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