Do you plan to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell products globally? If so, then you may want to consider providing your web visitors with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency converting tools allow your prospects to have the price of a foreign currency transaction converted into their local currency when checking out products online. It also lets your customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One advantage of providing currency conversion is that it lets visitors see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your website or blog, allowing your customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Tool For WP Websites & Blogs
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress web site.
This plugin includes practical features like:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- 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 are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your web host to check and 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 the “Install Now” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings area by choosing Currencyr from your administration menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another provider, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how frequently you would like the exchange rates to be updated by selecting an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings to suit your own preferences and remember to click the Save Changes button when done …
When you have configured your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to all of your WordPress site’s posts or pages using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without touching your web templates 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 a product online for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, you will need to insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 37.95, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when added to a product page …
After publishing your page, your converted currency amount will display like this …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing the content, the currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to specify 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 customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing your post or page, the converted currency will then appear like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now show on the sidebar with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you choose another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)