Are you planning to sell your products online worldwide? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your site.
Currency converting software tools allow your prospective customers to have the price of an international currency amount converted to their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets your customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add a currency converter to your WP site, allowing your site visitors to easily determine the cost of your products.
WP Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress web site.
Useful plugin features include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation if required.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose another option, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates by choosing 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).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings and remember to click Save Changes when you have finished configuring this screen …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP post using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell your product online for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, you will need to insert the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 47.00, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode will look after being inserted into the page …
Once the page has been published, your converted currency will then display like this …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
Once the post or page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as shown below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as the default.
For example, if you have specified 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 …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once the post or page has been published, your converted currency will then display like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now display on the sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
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 several 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 the forward slash as shown below …
If you modify this symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Software Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(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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