Do you plan to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell products internationally? If so, then you may want to think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools let your site visitors convert foreign currency amounts into their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
The obvious advantage of displaying currency conversion on your website is that it lets your customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s really easy and simple to add a currency converter to your website, allowing your customers to easily work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Plugin For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free!
The Currencyr plugin features:
- Inline converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full translation support
Note: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
***
You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin menu …
The plugin settings area offers you various configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option (USD) …
You can also choose which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select another provider, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you would like to update the exchange rates 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 (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the settings and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WP post or page using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell a product for a set price (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 add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 79.45, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being inserted into your post or page …
When the page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing your post or page, your currency conversion will then display as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like 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 in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once your post or page has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add the currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to 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 currency amounts with a forward slash as shown below …
If you select another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: 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:
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum