Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making goods available for sale online? If so, then you should consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your web site.
Currency converting software allows your prospective customers to translate international currency amounts to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors and customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One advantage of providing currency conversion is that it lets your customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to your WordPress website or blog, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily work out the cost of your goods.
WP Free Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free!
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs 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 web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation if needed.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings page by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress admin user navigation menu …
The plugin settings screen provides a number of configuration options …
For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu. The default option is (‘USD’) …
You can choose a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another option, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you would like the exchange rates to be updated 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this setting …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings to suit your own needs and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP page or post using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no programming skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods on your website for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 47.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode will look after you have added it to your page …
When your content has been published, your currency conversion will display as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
After publishing your post or page, your converted currency will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to select a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, if you have set 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 …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
Once your post or page has been published, the converted currency will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on the sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you change the symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
WP E-Commerce
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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