Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making goods available for sale to an online customer base? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software lets your site visitors convert foreign currency prices into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of displaying currency conversion on your site is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s easy and simple to add a currency conversion plugin to your web site, allowing your customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
WordPress Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Great plugin features include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires 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 upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings section by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu. The default option is ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another provider, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how frequently you would like the exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, you can just ignore this section …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured this screen …
When you have configured your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to WP site’s pages using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills or knowledge 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 retail goods on your site for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 189.00, 544.97, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look once you have added it to a post …
After publishing your post, the currency conversion will appear as shown in the screenshot below …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once the content has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display as seen in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
After publishing the page, the currency conversion will then display like this …
How To Use The Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Software Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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