Do you plan to sell goods and services online globally? If so, then you may want to consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting software lets your customers convert foreign currency pricing into their home currency when purchasing products online. It also lets visitors and customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
The obvious benefit of providing currency conversion is that it lets visitors 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 a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your customers to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
WP Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free!
Some of the features of this great plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! and European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins like WP-eCommerce & Shopp.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full language translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web host to update your PHP server installation.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the “Install” button …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress admin user menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you several configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu. The default option is ’USD’ …
You can select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another provider, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how often you would like the currency exchange rates to update 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 WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this option …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured all the options on this screen …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to your WordPress posts using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without editing your web templates 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 goods on your website for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 79.45, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look after you have added it to the post or page …
After publishing your page or post, your converted currency will then appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to a page …
After publishing the content, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with 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 set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing the post, the converted currency amounts will then display as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 several 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 a forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and 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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