Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling goods internationally? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools let your customers convert international currency transactions to their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of adding 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 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 easily understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converter For WP Websites
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free to install and use on your site.
Some of the features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several 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 a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full language translation support
Note: This plugin requires your server to be running 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 hosting support team to upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu. The default option is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can select a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose another option, 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 select how frequently you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the rest of the settings according to your preferences and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when finished …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to your WordPress posts using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no technical skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your product online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To do this, just insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 47.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks after being inserted into a post or page …
After publishing your page or post, your currency conversion will then appear as shown in the example below …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing the page or post, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like 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 e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing the content, your converted currency amounts will then appear as shown in the screenshot below …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on the sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with the forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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