Are you planning to set up an e-commerce website using WordPress, or sell products globally? If so, you may want to think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software tools let your prospective customers have the cost of a foreign currency amount translated to their local currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also lets customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One advantage of providing currency conversion is that it lets your customers see and understand pricing 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, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to easily determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Some of the useful features of this plugin include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports several 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 online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full support for language translations
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can visit the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP dashboard menu …
The plugin settings page offers you a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another option, such as FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you would like the exchange rates to update by selecting an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the remainder of the settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured this screen …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to all of your WordPress posts using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP pages, posts and widgets without having to mess with code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell an item online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, you simply need to add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 29.95, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks when inserting it into your post or page …
After publishing your post, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s also translate the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the post, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to specify a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once the post or page has been published, your currency conversion will then display as seen in the example below …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now appear on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol 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, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you enter another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(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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