How To Add Currency Conversion In WordPress

Learn how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website or blog using a free WordPress plugin called Currencyr …

Adding Currency Conversion To Your WordPress Web SiteAre you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling products online? If so, then you should consider providing users with a currency conversion feature.

Currency conversion software tools let your prospects translate international currency amounts to their local currency when purchasing products online. It also lets your visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.

The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows visitors to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.

If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your site via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly calculate the cost of your goods.

Currencyr – WP Free Currency Conversion Plugin

Currencyr - Currency Converting Tool For WP Sites

Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WP website.

The Currencyr useful WP plugin features:

  • In-line converter
  • Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Google & FoxRates
  • Support database cache driven for fast response
  • Widgetized currency table and converter
  • Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce & Shopp.
  • Automatically detects local currency
  • Full support for language translations

Important: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to update your PHP server installation if necessary.

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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin user navigation menu …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

The plugin settings section provides several configuration options …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Similarly, you can specify a data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

You can select how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

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 change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

Edit the rest of the plugin settings according to your preferences and click ‘Save Changes’ when done …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to WordPress blog’s posts using a shortcode.

See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.

Using Plugin Shortcodes

You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no web coding skills using shortcodes.

Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:

Let’s say that you retail your products for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.

All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your post or page …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 47.00, 544.97, etc …)

The example below shows how the shortcode will look after being added to a page or post …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

After the post has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

Using the same example, let’s now translate the same amount into multiple currencies.

To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

After publishing your page or post, the converted currency amounts will then display as seen in the example below …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.

Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one selected as your default.

For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

You can see how the shortcode looks when you add it to your content …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

After publishing your content, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

Currencyr Widget

You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.

To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …

WordPress Menu: Appearance > Widgets

In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

The currency conversion tool will now display on your sidebar menu with the options you have selected …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

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 section.

So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

If you modify this symbol and update your plugin settings …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Using The Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Software

As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

(image source: 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:

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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)