Do you plan to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods globally? If so, then you should probably think about providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion software allows your site visitors to translate international currency pricing into their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also allows your visitors to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress website or blog.
The Currencyr plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Supports full language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running 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 check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings area by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress administration menu …
The plugin settings section provides many configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default option is ’US Dollar’ …
You can select any supported data provider from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select another option, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how often you would like the exchange rates to be updated by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click Save Changes when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any of your WP website’s pages using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no coding skills 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 an item on your website for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 29.95, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look after being inserted into the page or post …
After the page or post has been published, the converted currency will display as seen below …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once the information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as seen in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing your post, the converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see below …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from the WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on the sidebar with the options you have specified …
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 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 field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you change this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
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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