Are you planning to sell goods or services online internationally? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing your potential customers with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion tools allow your customers to have the cost of a foreign currency amount converted into their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your WordPress web site, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
WordPress Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free!
The Currencyr plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online shopping plugins like WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Translation support
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web hosting support team to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings screen by choosing Currencyr from your WP administration area …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is (‘USD’) …
You can choose a data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another option, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates 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 (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your own needs and remember to click Save Changes when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP page or post using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail your product online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, just insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 189.00, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look after being inserted into your page …
Once your information has been published, your converted currency amount will display as you can see below …
Using the same example, let’s also translate the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once your content has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a post …
After publishing your content, the converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see in the screenshot below …
Using The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now display on your site’s sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values with the forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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