Do you sell products online worldwide? If so, then you should probably consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion tools allow your prospects to have the cost of a foreign currency amount translated to their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
WordPress Free Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
Plugin features include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full language translations
Important: This plugin requires 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 upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings page by choosing Currencyr from your WP dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
You can specify a data provider from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can 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 obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the remainder of the settings and remember to click Save Changes when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to WP blog’s pages and posts using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail a product for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 22.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks after being added to your post or page …
After publishing your post, the converted currency will then appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now translate the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing the post or page, your currency conversion will then appear as shown in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the 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 visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing the page or post, your converted currency will then appear as shown below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar area using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on the sidebar with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the 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 field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values with the forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)