Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making goods or services available for sale to an international customer base? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing your web visitors with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion tools allow your customers to translate international currency transactions to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also allows visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion is that it allows visitors to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
WordPress Free Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
This currency conversion plugin includes many features like the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full language translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your webhosting company to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can also specify any supported data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select 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 select how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which 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, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings according to your own preferences and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to your WP blog’s posts using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no web coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail a product for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 189.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look once you have added it to your post …
After publishing the information, the currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
Once your post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to select a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
Once the post has been published, the converted currency will then display like this …
Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Using The Currencyr Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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