Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making goods available for sale online? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency converting software allows your visitors to convert foreign currency prices to their home currency when checking out products online. It also lets your visitors and customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One advantage of showing currency conversion on your website is that it allows customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WP Websites And Blogs
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!
The Currencyr currency conversion WordPress plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Supports full translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web host to upgrade your PHP server installation.
***
You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin area …
The plugin settings screen provides several configuration settings …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu. The default base currency is ’US Dollar’ …
You can also choose a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you would like to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
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 this option alone …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings to suit your preferences and click Save Changes when you have finished configuring this page …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to all of your WordPress posts and pages using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no programming 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 are selling goods for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To do this, simply add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 197.00, 400.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to the post …
Once the post or page has been published, your currency conversion will display as seen below …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
After publishing the post, the currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the information, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar menu using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you choose another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org