Do you sell products online worldwide? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce site.
Currency conversion tools allow your visitors to have the cost of an international currency transaction translated into their home currency when checking out products online. It also lets your customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One benefit of putting currency conversion is that it lets your customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
WordPress Free Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s free!
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full translation support
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web hosting support team to update your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard area …
The plugin settings screen offers you a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you want a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another provider, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
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’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when you have finished configuring all the options on this page …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any of your WordPress pages or posts using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail a product for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, just add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 29.95, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks once you have added it to the page or post …
After publishing the post, your converted currency amount will then display as you can see in the example below …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
Once your post or page has been published, your converted currency will then display as seen in the example below …
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, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say you have set 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 …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will then display like this …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your site’s sidebar with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you choose another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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