Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making products available for sale online? If so, then you may want to think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting software tools allow your prospects to have the price of a foreign currency amount converted to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also allows customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of displaying currency conversion is that it allows your customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s quite simple to add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Conversion Plugin For WP Websites
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your website.
Some of the features of this great plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several 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 e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Supports full language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install” button …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can visit the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress administration menu …
The plugin settings area provides many configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can select any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you would like to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this setting …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your own preferences and don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
When you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to WP pages or posts using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages 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 pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail an item for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 29.95, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserting it into a page …
After publishing the page or post, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s now display 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 shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the content, the converted currency amounts will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, say 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 looks when you add it to your content …
Once your post or page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as shown in the example below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
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) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you select another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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