Do you sell goods and services online globally? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software allows your prospective customers to have the cost of an international currency amount translated to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One great advantage of providing currency conversion is that it lets 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 with WordPress, it’s simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your website or blog via a plugin, allowing your visitors to easily work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WP Web Sites
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free!
This plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full language translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web hosting provider to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can visit the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin user menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is ’United States Dollar’ …
You can also specify a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option 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 as your provider, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the settings and click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
When you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress page or post using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no programming skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your product online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, just add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 197.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being inserted into a post …
When the page has been published, the currency conversion will appear as seen below …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once your page has been published, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one selected as your 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 (for example, 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 your content …
After publishing the post, your converted currency amounts will then appear as seen below …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s 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 allows you to specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify this symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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