Do you plan to set up an e-commerce website, or sell goods globally? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools allow your prospective customers to have the price of a foreign currency transaction converted into their home currency when checking out products online. It also allows visitors to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
WP Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your WP web site.
Plugin features include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install Now” button …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress admin user area …
The plugin settings section provides many configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer something other than the default option ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can specify a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown 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 (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 to suit your needs and click the Save Changes button when finished …
When you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WP pages, posts 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 pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, you simply need to add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 37.95, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode will look once you have added it to the product page …
After publishing the information, the converted currency will then appear as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing your page or post, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once the information has been published, the converted currency will then appear like this …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now display on your site’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
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 several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Currencyr Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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