Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling products online? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce site.
Currency converting software allows your web visitors to convert international currency transactions to their home currency when purchasing products on e-commerce sites. It also allows your customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion to your website is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your WP site, allowing your customers to easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WP Websites
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress website.
Some of the many features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full support for language 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. Alternatively, ask your web host to update your PHP server installation.
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You can install the 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 configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin user navigation menu …
The plugin settings screen provides several configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can specify any supported data provider from the drop-down 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’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how often you would like the exchange rates to update by choosing 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 (such as WP plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this option …
Configure the rest of the settings and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
After you have configured your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress page or post using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, simply add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 189.00, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserting it into your product page …
After publishing your post, your converted currency amount will then display like this …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once the page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one you have selected as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing your page or post, your converted currency will then appear as you can see below …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your site’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you choose another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! 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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