How To Add Currency Conversion In WordPress

Learn how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website or blog using a free WordPress plugin called Currencyr …

How To Add Currency Conversion To WordPressDo you plan to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods worldwide? If so, then you should probably consider providing your web visitors with a currency conversion feature.

Currency converting software tools let your prospective customers convert foreign currency prices to their local currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.

One advantage of adding currency conversion is that it allows your customers to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.

If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly work out the cost of your products.

WordPress Free Currency Converter – Currencyr

Currencyr

Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s free!

The Currencyr useful WP plugin features:

  • Inline conversion tool
  • Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & Open Exchange Rates
  • WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
  • Currency table and converter widget
  • Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
  • Can detect local currency automatically
  • Full support for language translations

Important: This plugin needs 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. Ask your webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP.

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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the ”Install Now” button …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin menu …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

The plugin settings page offers you a number of configuration options …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

You can select which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

You can select how often you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).

Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

Edit the remainder of the settings according to your preferences and click the Save Changes button when finished …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

When you have configured your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to your WP site’s posts and pages using shortcodes and widgets.

See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.

Shortcodes

You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.

Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress pages and posts:

Let’s say that you retail goods online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.

To do this, simply insert the shortcode below into your post or page …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 47.00, 2499.99, etc …)

The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being inserted into a post or page …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

Once the page has been published, your currency conversion will display like this …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currency formats.

To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

After publishing the information, your converted currency will then display like this …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.

Now, let’s suppose that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.

For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …

WordPress Plugin - Currencyr

You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

Widget

You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar using a widget.

To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …

WP Menu: Appearance > Widgets

In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

Configure the widget settings as shown below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Converter

The currency converter will now appear on your website’s sidebar with the settings you have selected …

WP Plugin - Currencyr

Additional Plugin Notes

Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.

Currency Separator

The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.

You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.

So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

Separates all your currency amounts with the forward slash as shown below …

WP Plugin - Currency Converter

If you enter another symbol and update your settings …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …

WordPress Plugin - Currency Conversion

E-Commerce Platform Integration

As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …

WP Plugin - Currency Conversion

(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)

And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.

To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:

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Originally published as How To Add Currency Conversion In WordPress.