Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making products available for sale to an online audience? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion allows your prospects to translate foreign currency prices to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One benefit of displaying currency conversion on your site is that it allows customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to easily understand the cost of your goods.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an 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:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of online shopping plugins such as WP-eCommerce & Shopp.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full support for language translations
Important: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings page offers you various configuration settings …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is ’United States 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 also choose another option, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want the exchange rates to be updated by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this setting …
Configure the rest of the settings according to your own needs and click the Save Changes button when finished …
Once you have configured your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any of your WP posts or pages using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets with no web coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell a product for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 97.00, 129.10, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks when inserting it into a product page …
Once the content has been published, the converted currency amount will display like this …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to your content …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing the post or page, the currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now display on the sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Currencyr Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image sourced from plugin website)
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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