Do you sell goods online internationally? If so, then you should probably think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your web site.
Currency conversion software tools let your site visitors convert foreign currency amounts to their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also allows visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
The obvious advantage of showing currency conversion is that it allows your customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add a currency converter to your web site, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
WP Free Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your WP website.
Useful plugin features include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Google and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of online store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Supports full language translations
Important: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your web hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP server installation if necessary.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin menu …
The plugin settings area provides various configuration options …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu. The default base currency is ’USD’ …
You can select any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how frequently you would like to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the settings and don’t forget to click Save Changes when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to your WordPress site’s pages or posts using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell your product for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, you simply need to insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 29.95, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look once you have inserted it into your page or post …
After publishing your page or post, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once the information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to select a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to a post …
After publishing the post, the converted currency amounts will then appear as seen below …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar menu using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now appear on the sidebar with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change the symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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