How To Add Currency Conversion In WordPress

Learn how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website or blog using a free WordPress plugin called Currencyr …

Add Currency Conversion To Your SiteAre you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling goods internationally? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.

Currency converting software allows your prospects to have the price of an international currency transaction translated to their local currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.

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

If your site is built with WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to easily calculate the cost of your products.

WP Free Currency Converter – Currencyr

WP Currency Conversion Plugin - Currencyr

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

Some of the many useful features of this plugin include the following:

  • In-line converter
  • Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
  • Support database cache driven for fast response
  • Currency table and converter widget
  • Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
  • Automatic local currency detection
  • Support for language translations

Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP.

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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration navigation menu …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

This takes you to the plugin settings section …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default base currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

You can choose how often you want to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).

Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

Edit the rest of the settings and click Save Changes when finished …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

When you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to your WP pages or posts using shortcodes.

Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.

Using Currencyr Shortcodes

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

Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:

Let’s say that you sell goods online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.

To display this information, simply add the shortcode below into your post or page …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 97.00, 400.00, etc …)

The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after being inserted into a post or page …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

Once your post has been published, your converted currency amount will then display like this …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Using the above example, let’s now translate 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) …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Once your page has been published, the converted currency will then display like this …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.

Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.

For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a page …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

After publishing your page or post, the currency conversion will then appear like this …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

Currencyr Widget

You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.

To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress user admin menu …

WP Menu: Appearance > Widgets

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

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

The currency converter tool will now display on your sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

Additional Plugin Notes

Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the 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 section.

So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

If you choose another symbol and update your settings …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

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

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

WP E-Commerce

As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

(above image sourced from plugin website)

Congratulations! Now you can go and 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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