Are you planning to set up an e-commerce site, or sell goods online? If so, you may want to consider providing your potential customers with currency conversion.
Currency converting software lets your web visitors convert international currency prices into their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your website or blog, allowing your site visitors to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
The Currencyr currency conversion WP plugin includes features like:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! and Open Exchange Rates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Supports full language translations
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web hosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default option is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another option, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr 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 WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, you can just ignore this section …
Configure the rest of the settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling your product on your website for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 22.00, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode will look when inserting it into the page or post …
After publishing your page or post, the converted currency amount will then appear like this …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing your page or post, your converted currency amounts will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing your post, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add the currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to 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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr 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:
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum