Do you sell goods online to an online audience? If so, then you should consider providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency converting software allows your visitors to convert international currency transactions into their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also allows your customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your WordPress website, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Plugin For WP Websites & Blogs
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free to install and use on your website or blog.
Some of the useful features of this useful plugin include:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Support for language translations
Important: This plugin requires 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 host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings section by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option (USD) …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another provider, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
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 often you want the exchange rates to be updated 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 (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings according to your preferences and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WP page or post using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling a product on your site for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 19.95, 197.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks after you have inserted it into the post or page …
After publishing your page, the currency conversion will display like this …
Using the same example, let’s now display the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once your post or page has been published, the converted currency will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose 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 website targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once your page or post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display as you can see in the example below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website or blog’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on the sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you 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, 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 web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and 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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