Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making goods available for sale to an online audience? If so, you should probably think about providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency converting tools allow your visitors to have the price of an international currency amount translated to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One advantage of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows your customers to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s easy to add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
Useful plugin features include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires 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.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin user menu …
The plugin settings area offers you a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select a data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how often you would like to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to all of your WP pages using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail an item online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 19.95, 22.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look after you have inserted it into the page …
After publishing the post, your converted currency amount will appear as seen below …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once the post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to use a different base currency than the one 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 visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when added to your content …
After publishing the page or post, the converted currency will then appear like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on the sidebar 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 several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you change the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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