Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making goods available for sale globally? If so, then you may want to consider providing your web visitors with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion allows your prospects to convert international currency amounts into their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows your visitors to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One benefit of displaying currency conversion on your site is that it lets customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s easy to add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converter For WordPress
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
This useful WordPress plugin features:
- Inline converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Full language translation support
Note: The Currencyr 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. Alternatively, ask your webhosting provider to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option (USD) …
Similarly, you can specify a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default selection 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 enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to 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 to suit your own preferences and don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using shortcodes.
Refer to 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.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no programming knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell a product online for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 197.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserting it into your post or page …
After publishing the information, your converted currency will appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s now display the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to a post …
After publishing your post or page, the converted currency amounts will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select 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 website targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once the post has been published, the converted currency will then display as shown below …
Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on the sidebar with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you 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 field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you choose another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Using The Currencyr Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and 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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"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)