Do you plan to sell goods or services online globally? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion lets your prospective customers translate foreign currency prices into their home currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also allows visitors to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One great benefit of providing currency conversion is that it lets your customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local 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 currency conversion to your WP website or blog via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your web site.
Some of the many features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Google & European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your webhosting company to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard 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 selecting Currencyr from your admin menu …
The plugin settings area provides many configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another provider, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings according to your own needs and don’t forget to click Save Changes when done …
Once you have configured your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to WP pages and posts using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 19.95, 47.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode will look when added to a post or page …
After publishing the information, the converted currency amount will then display as you can see in the example below …
Using the above example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when added to your content …
After publishing your page, your currency conversion will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one set 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 example below shows how the shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once the page has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several 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 a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you select another symbol and update your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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