Are you planning to set up an e-commerce website, or sell goods or services worldwide? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion lets your prospective customers convert foreign currency prices to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows your visitors to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to your WordPress site, allowing your customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s also free!
The Currencyr plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full language translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your webhosting company to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu if you want a different currency than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can select a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select one of the other options, such as 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 choose how often you want to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
Once you have configured your settings, you can add currency conversion to WordPress posts using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling goods for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 189.00, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode will look when inserting it into the page …
After the page or post has been published, the converted currency will display as seen below …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once your post has been published, the currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as the 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 non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
Once the page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see below …
Using The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
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 website’s sidebar with the settings you have selected …
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 multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you choose another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopp …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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