Are you planning to sell goods online globally? If so, you should probably think about providing your prospects with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion software tools allow your prospective customers to have the cost of an international currency transaction converted into their local currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also lets your visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets visitors 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.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s really easy to add a currency converter to your WordPress web site, allowing your customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
WP Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free to install and use on your site.
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Supports full translations
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web hosting support team to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings screen provides a number of configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option (USD) …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how often you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Configure the rest of the settings according to your preferences and don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can add currency conversion to your WordPress pages and posts using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP pages, posts and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills 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 a product for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 37.95, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when added to your product page …
After your information has been published, the currency conversion will then display as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
After publishing your post, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see in the screenshot below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing the post, your converted currency amounts will then display as you can see below …
Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on your website’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 several 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 a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you choose another symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from 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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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now