Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or selling products globally? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your web visitors with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion software tools allow your visitors to have the cost of an international currency transaction translated into their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows your customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One benefit of showing currency conversion on your site is that it allows visitors to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s quite simple to add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly calculate the cost of your goods.
WP 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 to install and use on your WordPress site.
Great plugin features include:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full language translations
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web hosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can specify a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, such as FoxRate 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 specify how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down 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 (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the settings and remember to click Save Changes when done …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page or post using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no web coding skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling goods on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, simply insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 79.45, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode will look when inserting it into a product page …
After publishing your page, the currency conversion will appear as seen in the example below …
Using this example, let’s now display the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once the information has been published, the converted currency will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to use a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
Once the information has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display as you can see in the screenshot below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in your 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 example below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now display on your site’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several 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 a forward slash as shown below …
If you select another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from 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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