Are you planning to set up an e-commerce web site using WordPress, or sell your products worldwide? If so, then you may want to think about providing your prospects with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion software lets your prospective customers convert international currency pricing to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows your visitors to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One great advantage of putting currency conversion is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website or blog.
The Currencyr currency conversion WP plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Google, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full language translations
Note: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your webhosting company to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install Now” button …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings page by selecting Currencyr from your administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings area offers you a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default option is ’USD’ …
You can select a data provider from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another provider, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings according to your own needs and click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to WordPress pages using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without having to mess with code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress 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 would like to display your 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 add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 189.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserting it into a page …
After publishing the information, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once the information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to select a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing the information, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on your website’s sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several 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 using the forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! 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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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)