Do you plan to set up an e-commerce site using WordPress, or sell products to an overseas customer base? If so, you should think about providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your web site.
Currency converting software lets your visitors translate foreign currency pricing into their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One great advantage of putting currency conversion is that it allows customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, it’s easy to add a currency converter to your website, allowing your prospective customers to quickly work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free!
Useful plugin features include:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr 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. Ask your webhosting company to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the currency conversion 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 access the plugin’s settings page by selecting Currencyr from your administration area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another provider, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The 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 modify the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the rest of the settings according to your preferences and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured this screen …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to your WordPress pages using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP pages, posts 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 WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling your product for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, just add the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 97.00, 129.10, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks once you have added it to the post …
After publishing the post, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing the post or page, the converted currency will then appear as you can see in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one selected 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 non-European visitors (for example, 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 post …
Once the page or post has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display as seen below …
Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP user admin 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 would like to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now appear on the sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol 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 values with the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and update your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)