Do you plan to set up an e-commerce web site, or sell any products internationally? If so, then you should probably consider providing your prospects with a currency conversion feature.
Currency converting software tools allow your web visitors to convert foreign currency prices into their home currency when purchasing products on e-commerce sites. It also lets your visitors and customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it lets visitors see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your web site.
The Currencyr currency conversion WordPress plugin features:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Support for language translations
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin user area …
The plugin settings screen provides many configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option (USD) …
Similarly, you can specify a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another option, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have finished configuring all of your options …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP post using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no technical skills 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 a product on your website for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (for example, 89.95, 79.45, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks after you have added it to the post or page …
After publishing your post or page, your currency conversion will display like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once the page has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to select a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once your information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
Using The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar menu using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on the sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
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 resave your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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