Are you planning to set up an e-commerce website, or sell goods and services online? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion software tools let your site visitors convert foreign currency transactions into their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows your visitors and customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
One advantage of providing currency conversion on your website is that it allows visitors to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s quite easy and simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your WP website using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Tool For WP Websites
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your site.
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several 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 a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web hosting provider to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard area …
The plugin settings area provides several configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu. The default currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can choose 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 choose one of the other options, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how often you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click Save Changes when finished …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site’s pages and posts using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 47.00, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after you have inserted it into your page or post …
After your post or page has been published, your converted currency amount will then appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing the page, the converted currency will then display as shown in the screenshot 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 suppose that you would like 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 site targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing the post or page, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings 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 multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with a forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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