Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling goods globally? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion allows your prospects to convert international currency prices to their local currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also allows your visitors and customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great benefit of putting currency conversion is that it lets customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s easy to add currency conversion using a plugin to your WP site, allowing your customers to quickly calculate the cost of your products.
WP Free Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WP website or blog.
Useful plugin features include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Translation support
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 update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin user menu …
The plugin settings screen provides many configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu. The default base currency is (‘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 also select another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how often you want to update the exchange rates 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to WP blog’s posts or pages using shortcodes.
Refer to 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 insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling your products online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 47.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserting it into your product page …
After publishing your post, the converted currency amount will display like this …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once the information has been published, the currency conversion will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
Once your information has been published, your converted currency will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now show on your website’s sidebar with the settings 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 the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you enter another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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