Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling goods worldwide? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion lets your prospects have the cost of an international currency amount converted into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets your visitors view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
One advantage of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly understand the cost of your products.
WordPress Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Some of the features of this useful plugin include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google and Open Exchange Rates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Support for language translations
Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user area …
The plugin settings area offers you many configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ’USD’ …
You can also select which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another option, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Configure the remainder of the settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
When you have configured your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to WordPress pages and posts using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail an item for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display the 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 insert pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 189.00, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after you have added it to your post or page …
After publishing your post or page, your currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing your page, your converted currency will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once your post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter 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 lets you 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 values using a forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! 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:
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