Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making goods or services available for sale online? If so, then you should probably think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your web site.
Currency converting software tools allow your prospects to have the price of an international currency amount converted into their local currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also allows visitors and customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to your web site using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WP Websites
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Some of the many features of this useful plugin include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! & European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Support for language translations
Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP server installation if necessary.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area 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 WordPress admin area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings according to your needs and don’t forget to click Save Changes when done …
Once you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to WP posts or pages using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail an item for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 175.00, 47.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode should look when inserting it into the product page …
After publishing your page or post, your currency conversion will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once your page has been published, your currency conversion will then display as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one set 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 customers (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard 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 any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now show 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 multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values with a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and update your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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