Are you planning to sell your products online to a worldwide market? If so, then you may want to think about providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools let your customers convert international currency prices into their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One benefit of showing currency conversion on your website is that it allows customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Plugin For WordPress
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free to install and use on your WP website or blog.
Some of the useful features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various online shopping plugins such as WP-eCommerce & Shopp.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full language translations
Note: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your webhosting support team to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard area …
The plugin settings screen offers you several configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option (USD) …
You can choose a data provider from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. 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 often you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the settings and remember to click Save Changes when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP post using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no technical skills or knowledge 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 retail your products on your site for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To display this information, you simply need to insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 37.95, 400.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode should look when added to your page …
After publishing the content, the currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
Using the same example, let’s also display the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once the information has been published, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use 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 non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once your information has been published, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
Using The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using a 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 drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on the sidebar with the settings you have specified …
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 a forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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