Do you sell goods or services online internationally? If so, you should probably think about providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion allows your prospects to have the cost of a foreign currency transaction translated to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets your 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 using WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free!
This useful plugin includes features like:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation if required.
***
You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings area by choosing Currencyr from your WP admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu. The default base currency is (‘USD’) …
You can choose a data provider from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose another option, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you would like to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your own preferences and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured all the options in this screen …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP page or post using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets without editing your web templates 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 retail a product on your website for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 197.00, 295.75, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look once you have added it to the post …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will appear as you can see below …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
Once the page has been published, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to select a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter will now display on your site’s sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several 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 using the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you specify another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopp …
(above image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! 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:
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum