Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or making products available for sale globally? If so, then it’s a good idea to think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency converting tools let your visitors have the cost of an international currency transaction converted into their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your site.
Some of the features of this plugin include:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of online store plugins such as WP-eCommerce & Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full language translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your webhosting company to update your PHP server installation.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can visit the plugin’s settings screen by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin area …
The plugin settings page offers you many configuration options …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you would like to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, just ignore this setting …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click the Save Changes button when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WP pages, posts and widgets with no programming knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 47.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode will look once you have added it to your post …
After publishing your post, the currency conversion will then appear as seen in the example below …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once your content has been published, the currency conversion will then display as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to specify a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing the information, your currency conversion will then appear as shown below …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose 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 settings as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on the sidebar with the settings 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 select a different 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 you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group