Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making products available for sale internationally? If so, you should consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting software allows your visitors to have the price of an international currency transaction translated into their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One advantage of adding currency conversion is that it allows visitors to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s quite simple to add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converter For WP Websites & Blogs
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of online store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Supports full language translations
Important: This 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 host to update your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
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’ …
You can select which data provider you want to use from a drop-down 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 as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to WP posts and pages using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets without having to edit code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling goods for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 79.45, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks once you have inserted it into the post …
After publishing the page or post, the currency conversion will then display as seen below …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing the post or page, your converted currency will then display as shown in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as the 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 …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once your post or page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘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 display on your sidebar with the settings you have selected …
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 section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you enter another symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and 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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