Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or selling goods worldwide? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion software tools let your prospects have the cost of an international currency transaction translated into their local currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also lets visitors and customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it lets your customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
WP Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free!
This currency conversion plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Support for language translations
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web hosting support team to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings page by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard menu …
The plugin settings section provides several configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu. The default currency is ‘USD’ …
You can also select which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when finished …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress post using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell a product online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 97.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserting it into the post or page …
After publishing the post, the converted currency amount will display like this …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
After publishing your post, the currency conversion will then appear as shown in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to use a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing the content, the currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on the sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the 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 change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change this symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, 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 website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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