Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling products internationally? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion software allows your prospects to have the price of an international currency transaction converted into their local currency when purchasing products online. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your WP site, allowing your site visitors to easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Tool For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Some of the many features of this useful plugin include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full language translation support
Note: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web host to upgrade your PHP server installation if necessary.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin user area …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
You can also choose any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another provider, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this setting …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and remember to click Save Changes when done …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to your WordPress blog’s pages and posts using a shortcode.
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 …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no programming knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling a product for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 29.95, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being added to a post or page …
After publishing your post or page, your converted currency will then appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
After publishing the content, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one you have set as your 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 customers from 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 a post …
After publishing your content, your converted currency will then appear like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now appear on the sidebar with the settings 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, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you enter another symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
WordPress E-Commerce
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
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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