Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or selling goods internationally? If so, then it’s a good idea to think about providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your site.
Currency converting software allows your customers to translate foreign currency prices to their local currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also lets customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One benefit 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 purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s easy to add a currency converter to currency conversion to your WordPress website via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to easily calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converter For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress website.
This useful WP plugin includes many features such as:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings screen by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option (USD) …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you want the currency exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and click Save Changes when finished …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to all of your WP pages or posts using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP posts, pages and widgets with no coding skills or knowledge 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 retail an item on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 189.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks when inserting it into a product page …
When your post or page has been published, your converted currency amount will appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once the page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as seen below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your site’s sidebar with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and update your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! 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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