Do you sell products online globally? If so, you should think about providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion tools allow your web visitors to have the price of an international currency transaction converted to their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also lets your visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
WordPress Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Some of the features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full translations
Important: This plugin requires 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.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress administration area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu. The default base currency is ‘USD’ …
You can select a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose another option, 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 select how frequently you would like to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click Save Changes when you have finished configuring all the settings on this screen …
After you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can easily add currency conversion to your WP pages or posts using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no technical skills 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 on your website for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, you will need to insert the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 19.95, 22.00, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look after being added to your post …
When your page has been published, the converted currency will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
Using the above example, let’s also display the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …
After publishing your page or post, your converted currency will then appear as shown below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter will now display on the sidebar menu with the options 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 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 specify another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr 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:
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