Are you planning to sell goods online worldwide? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion software allows your visitors to have the cost of a foreign currency amount converted to their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets your customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your site.
Some of the features of this useful plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full translation support
Note: This plugin needs 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 on your server. Alternatively, ask your webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP server installation.
***
You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard area …
The plugin settings page provides many configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can specify a data provider from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose 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 (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, simply ignore this option …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your needs and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any of your WP website’s posts using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets without editing your web templates 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 are selling a product online for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 37.95, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after you have inserted it into the post or page …
When your post has been published, the converted currency amount will then appear as seen below …
Using this example, let’s also display the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once your information has been published, the converted currency will then display as seen in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when added to your content …
Once the page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as shown in the screenshot below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now display on your sidebar with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
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) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
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