Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling goods internationally? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency converting software allows your prospects to have the price of an international currency transaction translated to their local currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
The obvious advantage of displaying currency conversion is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to easily calculate the cost of your products.
WP Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress site.
Some of the many useful features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Support for language translations
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default base currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you want to update the exchange rates 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 (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings and click Save Changes when finished …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to your WP pages or posts using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages 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 posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell goods online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, simply add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 97.00, 400.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after being inserted into a post or page …
Once your post has been published, your converted currency amount will then display like this …
Using the above example, let’s now translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once your page has been published, the converted currency will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
After publishing your page or post, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an 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 tool will now display on your sidebar menu with the settings 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 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 section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you choose another symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
WP E-Commerce
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above 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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