Category: Engagement Plugins

Are you planning to sell any products online worldwide? If so, you may want to consider providing your web visitors with a currency conversion tool.

Currency converting tools allow your prospects to have the price of an international currency transaction converted into their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also allows your visitors and customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.

The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.

Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your website using a plugin, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.

Currencyr – Free Currency Converter For WordPress

Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress site.

This useful plugin includes great features like:

• Inline converter
• Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
• Support database cache driven for fast response
• Currency table and converter widget
• Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
• Automatically detects local currency
• Translation support

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 on your server. Alternatively, ask your webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP server installation if required.

***

You can install the 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 configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard area …

The plugin settings area offers you a number of configuration options …

For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option (USD) …

You can also specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another option, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …

Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …

You can specify how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …

The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers 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 rest of the plugin settings to suit your own needs and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …

After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to your WordPress site’s posts using shortcodes and widgets.

See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.

How To Use Shortcodes

You can insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills using shortcodes.

Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP 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 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, 165.49, 37.95, 399.99, etc …)

The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look after being inserted into a post …

After the information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …

Using the above example, let’s also convert the same amount into multiple currencies.

To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …

The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when added to a page …

After publishing your information, your currency conversion will then display as you can see in the example below …

refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.

Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.

For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (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 your content …

Once your page has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see in the screenshot below …

Currencyr Widget

You can also add currency conversion to your website or blog’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.

To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP admin menu …

In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …

Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …

Your currency converter tool will now show on your 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 allows you to 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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …

Separates all your currency amounts using a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …

If you enter another symbol and resave your settings …

Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …

Using The Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms

As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …

(image source: plugin website)

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.

To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:

• WordPress e-Commerce Plugins: A Comprehensive Guide

***