Are you planning to sell goods online internationally? If so, you should think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools let your visitors convert international currency transactions to their home currency when checking out products online. It also lets your visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
The obvious advantage of showing currency conversion on your site is that it allows visitors to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to your WP website, allowing your prospective customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your site.
Great plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Note: 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. Ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings page by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can select any supported data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your needs and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when finished …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any of your WordPress blog’s pages and posts using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail your products for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, just insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 47.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look after being added to the post or page …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s now display the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing your page or post, your currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing the information, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on the sidebar with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol 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) …
Separates all your currency values with the forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Shopp …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! 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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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)