Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling goods internationally? If so, you should probably think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion lets your prospective customers translate international currency prices into their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to 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 simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Plugin features include:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full translation support
Important: 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. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can choose how often you would like the exchange rates to update by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down 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).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, just ignore this setting …
Edit the rest of the settings to suit your own preferences and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring all the settings in this section …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to WP site’s pages or posts using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to 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 your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 189.00, 129.10, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look when added to the post …
Once the post has been published, the converted currency amount will appear like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same amount into multiple currencies.
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 appears when inserted into your content …
Once the content has been published, your converted currency will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one you have selected as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once your page or post has been published, your converted currency will then display as you can see below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on the 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 allows you to 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 a forward slash as shown below …
If you enter another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to 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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