Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or making goods and services available for sale internationally? If so, then you may want to think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools let your customers convert international currency pricing into their local currency when purchasing products online. It also allows your visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
The obvious benefit of providing currency conversion on your site is that it allows visitors to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to your site using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WP Websites
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your website or blog.
The Currencyr plugin includes features like the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full translations
Note: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings screen by choosing Currencyr from your administration menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu. The default currency is ‘USD’ …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
When you have finished configuring your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to all of your WP site’s pages using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no web coding skills or knowledge 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 retail your product on your site for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 47.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being added to a post or page …
When your post or page has been published, the currency conversion will display like this …
Using this example, let’s now display the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
After publishing your content, your converted currency will then display as you can see below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to select a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
After publishing the post or page, the converted currency will then display like this …
Using The Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now show 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 lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you enter another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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