Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or selling goods to an international market? If so, then you should think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting software lets your prospective customers translate international currency pricing into their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors and customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
The obvious benefit of showing currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website.
Great plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Important: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your webhosting provider to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard 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 admin user menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu. The default base currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you would like the currency exchange rates to update by selecting 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your preferences and click Save Changes when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to your WP pages and posts using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no web coding skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods on your site for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 197.00, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks after you have inserted it into a page or post …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will appear as you can see below …
Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once the post or page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter will now display on your website’s sidebar menu 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 a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different 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 specify another symbol and update your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, 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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