Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling products globally? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your prospects with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion lets your visitors translate international currency amounts into their local currency when purchasing or checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also allows visitors and customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets visitors see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to your website or blog, allowing your customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your web site.
Some of the many useful features of this great plugin include:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Supports full translations
Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP server installation if necessary.
***
You can install the plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your administration area …
The plugin settings area offers you several configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option (USD) …
You can also choose which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you would like the exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, you can just ignore this setting …
Edit the remainder of the settings to suit your needs and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to your WordPress posts using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without having to edit code using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail a product online for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 89.95, 37.95, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks after you have added it to a page …
After publishing your information, your converted currency amount will appear like this …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once the content has been published, your converted currency will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like 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 website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing your page, your converted currency will then appear as you can see in the example below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with a forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like 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 WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum