Do you plan to set up an e-commerce web site using WordPress, or sell goods and services worldwide? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing your potential customers with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion lets your customers translate foreign currency pricing to their home currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also allows your visitors to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One great advantage of putting currency conversion on your site is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Plugin For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s also free!
Some of the many useful features of this useful plugin include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! and Open Exchange Rates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress admin navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can choose which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how frequently you would like the currency exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings according to your needs and click the Save Changes button when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
When you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no technical knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, you simply need to add the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 29.95, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode will look after you have inserted it into the page …
Once your page or post has been published, your converted currency will then appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s also translate the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one set 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 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 added to your content …
Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now display on your sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you enter another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
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:
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group