Do you plan to set up an e-commerce web site, or sell goods or services to an overseas market? If so, then you may want to think about providing your prospects with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion lets your customers translate foreign currency amounts to their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets your customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your WordPress website or blog using a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Some of the many useful features of this useful plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full language translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP 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 dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
You can choose any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP pages, posts and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling your product for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, just add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 47.00, 295.75, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks when inserting it into your post …
After publishing the post, the converted currency will then appear as seen below …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same amount 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 appears when you add it to a post …
Once your post or page has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as you can see in the screenshot below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one you have selected as your 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 customers 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 your content …
After publishing the content, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! 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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