Are you planning to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods worldwide? If so, then you may want to think about providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency converting tools let your customers translate international currency amounts into their home currency when purchasing products on e-commerce sites. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Plugin For WordPress
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
This currency conversion plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! and European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of online shopping plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full translations
Important: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, 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 “Install Now” …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard navigation menu …
The plugin settings area offers you several configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another option, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want the exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the remainder of the settings to suit your own needs and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when finished …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any of your WordPress pages using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell a product on your site for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 37.95, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks after you have added it to your post or page …
Once your information has been published, your converted currency amount will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s also display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once the content has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one you have selected as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website 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 a page …
Once your page has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see in the screenshot below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now display on your website’s sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you modify the symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the 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 website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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