Are you planning to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods or services internationally? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing your web visitors with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion software tools let your visitors have the cost of a foreign currency transaction translated to their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One advantage of putting currency conversion is that it lets visitors view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, it’s quite easy and simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to your WordPress web site, allowing your prospective customers to quickly calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress web site.
The Currencyr currency conversion plugin includes a number of great features like the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- 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 on your server. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP server installation if needed.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin navigation menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you many configuration options …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you want a different currency than the default option ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how often 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 allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings according to your needs and click the Save Changes button when done …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP post or page using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without editing your web templates using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling an item for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 89.95, 47.00, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks once you have added it to your page …
After the post or page has been published, your converted currency amount will appear like this …
Using this example, let’s now display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once the page or post has been published, the 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 in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have set 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 …
Here’s how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing your page, the converted currency will then display as seen below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on the sidebar 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 allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values with the forward slash as shown below …
If you choose another symbol and update your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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