Do you plan to set up an e-commerce site, or sell goods online? If so, then it’s a good idea to think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion tools allow your visitors to translate foreign currency prices into their local currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets your visitors and customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One benefit of displaying currency conversion on your website is that it lets your customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Plugin For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
The Currencyr plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! & European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Note: 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. Ask your web hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings section offers you many configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you would like the currency exchange rates to update 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 allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured all of your settings …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any of your WP site’s posts using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no programming skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling an item for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 97.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode will look after being added to your post or page …
After publishing your page, your converted currency will then appear as seen below …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once the content has been published, the 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, let’s say that you want to use a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once the information has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol 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) …
Separates all your prices with a forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and update your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
WordPress E-Commerce
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: 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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