Do you sell any products online to an overseas market? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion allows your visitors to convert foreign currency transactions into their home currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also allows visitors and customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious advantage of putting currency conversion on your site is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s really simple to add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Tool For WP Sites
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
This plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & Open Exchange Rates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your webhosting support team to upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install Now” button …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
You can also specify which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another option, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how often you would like the currency exchange rates to update by selecting an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this option …
Edit the rest of the settings according to your own preferences and remember to click Save Changes when finished …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP pages, posts and widgets without having to edit code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling your products for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To display this information, simply insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 79.45, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks after you have added it to a page or post …
After the page has been published, your converted currency amount will then appear as seen below …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once your page or post has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display as shown in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing your post or page, your converted currency amounts will then appear as shown below …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
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 conversion tool will now display on your website’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org