Do you plan to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods worldwide? If so, you may want to consider providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software tools let your prospects have the price of a foreign currency transaction translated to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One great benefit of displaying currency conversion on your website is that it allows customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to your website or blog, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
The Currencyr plugin includes a number of features such as:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WP-eCommerce & Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web hosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can visit the plugin’s settings area by selecting Currencyr from your administration menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can select one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how often you would like the currency exchange rates to update by choosing 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).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your own needs and click Save Changes when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP post using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without editing your web templates 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 retail your products on your website for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, you will need to add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 97.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode should look after you have inserted it into the post …
After publishing the post or page, your converted currency amount will then appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once your page or post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once your post has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now display on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
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 change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using a forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and update your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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