Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or making products available for sale globally? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency converting software tools let your web visitors convert foreign currency transactions to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also allows your visitors to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets your 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 your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to easily work out the cost of your products.
WordPress Free Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WP web site.
Some of the many useful features of this great plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Google & Open Exchange Rates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Note: This plugin requires 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 hosting provider to upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings page by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard area …
The plugin settings area offers you a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu. The default currency is (‘USD’) …
You can select a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another provider, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how frequently you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated 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 (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the settings and remember to click the Save Changes button when you have configured all the settings in this page …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to your WP blog’s pages using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell an item for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 22.00, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look after being inserted into a product page …
After publishing your content, the converted currency amount will display as seen below …
Using the same 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) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to your content …
Once the information has been published, your converted currency will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once the information has been published, your converted currency will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now display on your site’s 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 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, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you enter another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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