Do you plan to set up an e-commerce site using WordPress, or sell products to a worldwide audience? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency conversion software tools let your web visitors convert international currency transactions to their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One benefit of displaying currency conversion on your website is that it lets visitors see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your site visitors to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converter For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, 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.
Some of the useful features of this great plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various 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-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress administration menu …
The plugin settings page provides various configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default currency is (‘USD’) …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you want to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr 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 (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your own preferences and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when finished …
Once you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP page or post using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no coding knowledge or 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 on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 79.45, 399.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode will look once you have added it to the post …
After publishing your information, the currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s now display the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing your post, your currency conversion 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, let’s say that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once the information has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar area using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your 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 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 field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify this symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now