Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or selling goods online? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency conversion software tools allow your prospective customers to have the price of a foreign currency transaction translated to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows your customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One advantage of showing currency conversion on your website is that it allows visitors to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly understand the cost of your goods.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website or blog.
This currency conversion WordPress plugin includes advanced features such as:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires 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. Ask your web hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you many configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you would like to update the exchange rates 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 (such as WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …
Edit the rest of the settings and don’t forget to click Save Changes when you have configured this screen …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any of your WordPress posts and pages using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling goods online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, just add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 47.00, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode should look after you have added it to the page or post …
When the page or post has been published, the converted currency will then appear as you can see below …
Using the same example, let’s also translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
Once your page has been published, the currency conversion will then display as seen in the example 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 specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say 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 …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
Once your content has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display as seen below …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now appear on your site’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr 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 section.
So, for example, entering 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 display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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