Are you planning to sell goods or services online internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency converting software lets your site visitors convert international currency transactions 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 home currency.
The obvious benefit of providing currency conversion on your website is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly work out the cost of your products.
WordPress Free Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your site.
This currency conversion plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of online shopping plugins like WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP.
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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 “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings area by choosing Currencyr from your admin area …
The plugin settings section provides various configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you would like to update the exchange rates 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 (such as WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings and click Save Changes when you have finished configuring all of your options …
When you have configured your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP page or post using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching code 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 an item for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To display this information, simply insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 197.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode should look once you have inserted it into the post or page …
After publishing your post, your currency conversion will appear as shown in the screenshot below …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once the page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European customers (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once the page has been published, your currency conversion will then display as seen below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website or blog’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget 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 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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you enter another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to 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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