Are you planning to set up an e-commerce site with WordPress, or sell your products internationally? If so, then you may want to consider providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency converting software tools let your visitors have the cost of a foreign currency amount translated to their home currency at the point of sale. 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.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress website or blog.
Useful plugin features include the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Google, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Supports full language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your webhosting company to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to update by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …
Edit the rest of the settings according to your own preferences and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell an item for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, simply insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 22.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode will look after being added to your post or page …
After publishing your page or post, your converted currency will then appear as shown in the screenshot below …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once the page or post has been published, your currency conversion will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like 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 site targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
After publishing your post, your converted currency will then display like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website or blog’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your site’s sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
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 section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you select another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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