Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling products globally? If so, you should probably consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency conversion software lets your customers convert foreign currency pricing to their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Plugin For WP Sites
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your web site.
Some of the many useful features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Full support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation if necessary.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings screen by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how frequently you would like the exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the remainder of the settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can add currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP pages, posts and widgets without having to mess with code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your product on your website for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 47.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode should look after being added to your post or page …
Once the page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing the information, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, if you have specified 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 shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
After publishing the content, the converted currency will then display like this …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the 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, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-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 currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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