Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making products available for sale worldwide? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software lets your prospects translate international currency pricing into their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers view 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, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Converting Plugin For WP Web Sites
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free!
This plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Google & Open Exchange Rates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins like WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Support for language translations
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘USD’ …
You can select any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you want to update the currency exchange rates 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 (like WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the settings and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WP pages, posts and widgets with no technical skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling a product for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 47.00, 295.75, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode will look after being added to a page or post …
After publishing the post or page, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same price into multiple currencies.
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 appears when added to a page …
After publishing the post, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European customers (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
After publishing the content, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on the sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol 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 shown below …
If you specify another symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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