Do you plan to set up an e-commerce website with WordPress, or sell goods online? If so, then you may want to consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion allows your visitors to convert foreign currency transactions to their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also allows visitors to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One advantage of adding currency conversion is that it allows customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, it’s easy to add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your web site using a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
WordPress Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your site.
Some of the features of this plugin include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Google and Open Exchange Rates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Important: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web hosting provider to update your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin user area …
The plugin settings screen offers you many configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default base currency is ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can select any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the remainder of the settings and click Save Changes when finished …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to WP pages and posts using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling goods for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, just insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 47.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after you have inserted it into the page …
Once the page has been published, your converted currency will appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once the post or page has been published, your converted currency will then appear as you can see in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing your page or post, your currency conversion will then display like this …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from the 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 a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on the sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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