Do you plan to set up an e-commerce site, or sell goods worldwide? If so, you should consider providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools allow your customers to translate international currency pricing to their home currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets your customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One benefit of putting currency conversion on your website is that it lets visitors view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
WP Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress website.
Plugin features include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full translation support
Note: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
***
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard navigation menu …
The plugin settings section offers you various configuration options …
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)’ …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you want the exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the remainder of the settings and remember to click Save Changes when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no web coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling goods for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 197.00, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look after being inserted into the page or post …
After publishing the page or post, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same amount into different currency formats.
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 the content, your currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once your information has been published, the converted currency will then display like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on your site’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different 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 specify another symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group