Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling products to a foreign customer base? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency converting tools allow your visitors to have the cost of a foreign currency transaction converted to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also lets your visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
The obvious benefit of putting currency conversion is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress site.
This currency conversion plugin includes features like:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as 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 a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce & Shopp.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web host to update your PHP server installation if required.
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You can install the 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 configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin area …
The plugin settings page provides a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to be updated 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 (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Configure the remainder of the settings and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to your WP pages or posts using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets without editing 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 retail a product for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 29.95, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being inserted into the page …
Once your content has been published, your currency conversion will display as seen below …
Using the same example, let’s also display the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once your information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as shown in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to select a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
Once your page has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar area using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose 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’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on your website’s sidebar 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 you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change the symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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