Do you plan to sell products online worldwide? If so, then you may want to think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software lets your site visitors translate foreign currency pricing into their local currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets your visitors and customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your WP web site, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your website or blog.
Plugin features include:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins such as WP-eCommerce & Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Important: The Currencyr 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 host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu. The default currency is ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your own preferences and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
Once you have configured your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to all of your WP posts using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets without editing 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 on your site for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, you simply need to add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 29.95, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks when added to a page or post …
After publishing your post, your converted currency amount will display like this …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
After publishing your information, the 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 want to use a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to customers in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once the page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 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 specify another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
WP E-Commerce
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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