Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making goods and services available for sale globally? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency converting software tools let your visitors have the cost of an international currency transaction converted to their local currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also allows visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit 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 allows your customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
The Currencyr currency conversion WP plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your webhosting support team to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu if you want a different currency than the default option ’USD’ …
You can select a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you would like the exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown 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 setting …
Edit the rest of the settings according to your own needs and remember to click the Save Changes button when done …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WordPress posts, pages and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling a product on your website for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 79.45, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being inserted into your post or page …
Once your information has been published, your currency conversion will display as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
After publishing your page or post, the converted currency 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, suppose you want to select 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 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 appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing your post, the converted currency amounts will then display like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, 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 options as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now display on the sidebar with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr 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 change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
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 update your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin website)
Congratulations! 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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