Do you plan to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods and services internationally? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing your web visitors with a currency conversion service.
Currency converting software lets your customers translate international currency amounts to their home currency when purchasing products online. It also allows customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s really simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to your site via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WP website or blog.
The Currencyr plugin includes advanced features like:
- In-line conversion tool
- 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
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs 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 host to update your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings page by selecting Currencyr from your WP dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu. The default option is ’USD’ …
You can select any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want the exchange rates to be updated by specifying 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 (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this section …
Configure the remainder of the settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring this screen …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress page using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell goods online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 97.00, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode should look when added to your post or page …
When the post or page has been published, your currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s also display the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once the post or page has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to specify a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, say you have specified 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 …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once the post or page has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown 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 appear on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
WordPress E-Commerce
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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