Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling goods online? If so, then you should consider providing your web visitors with a currency conversion feature.
Currency converting software tools let your prospective customers have the cost of an international currency transaction translated into their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows your visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
The obvious advantage of showing currency conversion on your site is that it allows visitors to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly determine the cost of your products.
WP Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Great plugin features include:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Google and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to update your PHP server installation.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress 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 user menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you several configuration settings …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu if you want something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how often you would like to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Edit the rest of the settings and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when finished …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no programming skills or 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 retail your product for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, simply insert the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 79.45, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to a post …
When the post or page has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the above example, let’s now translate the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
Once your information has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if 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 …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when added to your content …
Once the content has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as shown below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your sidebar with the options you have selected …
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 select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using the forward slash as shown below …
If you modify this symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
WP E-Commerce
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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