Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or making goods available for sale online? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion software tools allow your customers to convert international currency amounts into their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
The obvious benefit of showing currency conversion is that it lets visitors 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 powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to your WP site via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily understand the cost of your goods.
WP Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress web site.
This currency conversion WP plugin includes many features like the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings page by selecting Currencyr from your WP dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you want something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you would like the exchange rates to update by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings to suit your own needs and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring all of your options …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to any of your WP posts or pages using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no technical skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail an item online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 197.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to a page …
When your content has been published, the currency conversion will display as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to your content …
Once your content has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once your information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as shown below …
Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress dashboard 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 below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now show on your website’s sidebar with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with the forward slash as shown below …
If you modify this symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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