Are you planning to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell your products internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing your web visitors with the convenience of currency conversion on your site.
Currency converting tools allow your web visitors to translate international currency pricing into their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets your customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to easily calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
This currency conversion WP plugin features:
- Inline converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Full language 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. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin menu …
The plugin settings area provides a number of configuration options …
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’ …
You can also specify which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how often you want to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the remainder of the settings and remember to click Save Changes when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to WP pages using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP pages, posts and widgets with no web coding skills 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 an item on your website for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 189.00, 400.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks after being inserted into a page …
After publishing the post, your currency conversion will then display as seen below …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once your page or post has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as seen in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will then appear as shown below …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now display on your sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you specify another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! 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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