Are you planning to sell goods or services online worldwide? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software allows your site visitors to convert international currency pricing to their home currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows visitors to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s quite easy and simple to add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converter For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free to install and use on your web site.
Some of the many features of this plugin include:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- 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 hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP server installation if needed.
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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 Now” button …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard navigation menu …
The plugin settings section provides various configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default currency is ’USD’ …
You can also select which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select another option, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown 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 modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Configure the rest of the settings to suit your own needs and remember to click Save Changes when finished …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to your WP website’s pages and posts using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no technical skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail a product online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, just insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 97.00, 129.10, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks once you have inserted it into the page …
After the page or post has been published, your converted currency will then display like this …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once the post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
After publishing your content, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using The Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on your sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the 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 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 the forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Software Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! 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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