Are you planning to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods or services online? If so, then you should probably think about providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software lets your customers translate foreign currency transactions into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets your visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great benefit of providing currency conversion on your website is that it allows customers to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to your site using a plugin, allowing your visitors to easily work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your site.
Some of the features of this plugin include:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress admin navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default base currency is ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can select one of the other options, 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 select how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by specifying 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 (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this setting …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when finished …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to WordPress site’s posts or pages using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no web coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail a product online for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 22.00, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being inserted into the page or post …
After publishing your page or post, the converted currency amount will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
Using the above 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 by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
After publishing your post or page, your converted currency will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select 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 website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once the page has been published, the converted currency will then display like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter will now display on the sidebar with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol 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) …
Separates all your currency values with a forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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