Are you planning to sell products online worldwide? If so, then you may want to think about providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion software tools allow your prospective customers to convert foreign currency transactions into their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets your customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
One advantage of providing currency conversion is that it allows customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s quite simple to add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free!
The Currencyr currency conversion WP plugin includes features such as:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Full support for language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web hosting company to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress admin navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default base currency is ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can select one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the settings and don’t forget to click Save Changes when finished …
Once you have configured your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP post using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in this plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling a product for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, you will need to insert the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 37.95, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks after being inserted into your page …
Once the content has been published, your converted currency amount will then appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing the information, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors from countries 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 page, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
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 multiple 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 prices with the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change this symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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