Do you plan to sell products online worldwide? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion tools allow your customers to have the price of an international currency transaction converted into their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One advantage of providing currency conversion on your website is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s easy and simple to add a currency converter to your WP site, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
Plugin features include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full support for language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP dashboard menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you a number of configuration options …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the settings according to your own preferences and click Save Changes when you have finished configuring this section …
After you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching 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 sell a product for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, you simply need to add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (for example, 89.95, 29.95, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode will look after being inserted into a page or post …
After publishing your page, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing the page or post, your currency conversion will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to select a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once your post or page has been published, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now display on your 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 section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify this symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum