Are you planning to set up an e-commerce website, or sell any products to an overseas customer base? If so, you should consider providing your potential customers with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce site.
Currency converting software allows your visitors to have the cost of a foreign currency transaction converted to their local currency when purchasing products online. It also allows your visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One benefit of showing currency conversion is that it allows visitors to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
The Currencyr currency conversion WP plugin includes a number of advanced features like the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Supports full translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings section by choosing Currencyr from your WP admin navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option (USD) …
Similarly, you can specify a data provider from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured this section …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to WordPress pages or posts using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without having to edit your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail your products online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 97.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look after being inserted into your page or post …
Once your content has been published, the converted currency amount will appear like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
Once your post or page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as seen in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once your post or page has been published, the converted currency will then appear as seen below …
Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar menu using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP user admin 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 in the example below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now display on your site’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to 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 field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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