Do you plan to set up an e-commerce web site, or sell products worldwide? If so, you should think about providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency converting software tools allow your visitors to have the price of a foreign currency transaction translated to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One benefit of showing currency conversion on your site is that it lets customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Plugin For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free to install and use on your WP website.
The Currencyr currency conversion plugin features:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full language translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin user area …
The plugin settings area provides many configuration options …
For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another provider, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to update by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
When you have configured your settings, you can add currency conversion to WordPress website’s posts and pages using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without having to edit code using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell an item online for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 79.45, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks when added to a post or page …
After publishing the page, the converted currency will display like this …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing the page, the converted currency will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below 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 set as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once your post or page has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress 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 below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on your site’s sidebar with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol 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 prices using the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify this symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like 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 a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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