Do you plan to set up an e-commerce site, or sell any products to a global market? If so, you may want to consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency conversion lets your customers convert international currency amounts into their home currency when checking out products online. It also allows visitors and customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One great benefit of providing currency conversion is that it allows visitors to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to your WP website using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
This currency conversion plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of online store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full language translation support
Important: 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 web host to update your PHP.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration area …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
You can also specify any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how frequently you would like the exchange rates to update by specifying 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).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings according to your own needs and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to all of your WordPress website’s pages using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no technical skills using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods online for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 29.95, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look after being added to the page …
After publishing your page, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s now display the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing your page, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once the content has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see below …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your site’s sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As described earlier, the Currencyr 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)
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:
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum