Do you plan to sell products online globally? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your potential customers with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency converting tools let your prospective customers have the cost of an international currency transaction translated to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets visitors view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s easy and simple to add a currency converter to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Conversion Plugin For WordPress
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your WordPress site.
Some of the features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation if necessary.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin area …
The plugin settings area offers you a number of configuration options …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you want something other than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
You can select any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another option, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how frequently you want the exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the settings and remember to click Save Changes when done …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress post using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without editing your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling a product online for a fixed amount (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 shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 22.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look once you have added it to your post …
After publishing the post or page, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s now display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing your post or page, the currency conversion will then appear as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one set 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 customers (for example, 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 your information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display as shown in the example below …
Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website or blog’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter will now appear on the sidebar with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(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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