Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling goods to an international customer base? If so, then you may want to consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools let your visitors have the price of a foreign currency amount converted into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One advantage of showing currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s simple to add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to your WordPress website using a plugin, allowing your customers to easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Plugin For WordPress
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free!
The Currencyr useful plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full translation support
Note: This plugin requires 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 update your PHP server installation if needed.
***
You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install” button …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration area …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you want a different currency than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
You can select which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose another option, 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 the currency exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown 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 (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this setting …
Edit the rest of the settings to suit your own preferences and click Save Changes when finished …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress post using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, just insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 19.95, 37.95, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode will look after being added to the post …
After publishing your information, your converted currency amount will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once your post or page has been published, the converted currency will then display as you can see below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode appears when added to your content …
Once your content has been published, the converted currency will then appear as seen below …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the 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 conversion tool will now show 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 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 the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify the symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce website.
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