Do you sell goods or services online globally? If so, then you should probably consider providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion software tools let your customers have the price of a foreign currency amount converted into their home currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great benefit of providing currency conversion on your site is that it lets customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to your WP web site via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Great plugin features include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Google & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user area …
The plugin settings page offers you several configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu if you want something other than the default option ’USD’ …
You can also specify a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you would like to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to WP pages and posts using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WP pages, posts and widgets with no programming knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling an item online for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 47.00, 129.10, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks once you have added it to your page …
After publishing your page or post, the converted currency will display as you can see below …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the information, your currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
After publishing your information, your converted currency amounts will then appear as seen in the example below …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose 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 currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now display on your site’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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