Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making goods available for sale globally? If so, then you may want to think about providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency converting tools let your prospective customers have the cost of a foreign currency amount converted to their local currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets your visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious advantage of displaying currency conversion on your website is that it lets your customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
WP Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s also free!
The Currencyr plugin includes a number of features like:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full language translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install” button …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard navigation menu …
The plugin settings screen provides various configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by selecting 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 (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Configure the remainder of the settings according to your preferences and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP page or post using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no programming knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your products online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 89.95, 197.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look after being added to your page …
After publishing your post or page, the currency conversion will display as seen below …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same price into multiple currencies.
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 above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once your page has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to use a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once your information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as shown below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar area using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on the sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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