Are you planning to sell goods and services online worldwide? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing your potential customers with the convenience of currency conversion on your site.
Currency conversion software allows your prospects to convert foreign currency transactions to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your WordPress website, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WP website or blog.
Plugin features include:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online store plugins like WooCommerce & Shopp.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your webhosting support team to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default option is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose another option, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the rest of the settings according to your own needs and click the Save Changes button when you have configured all of your options …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can add currency conversion to your WordPress posts or pages using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling goods on your site for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, just add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 22.00, 129.10, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode should look after you have added it to the page …
When the page has been published, your converted currency amount will display like this …
Using the same example, let’s also display the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once your post has been published, 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, let’s say that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one you have 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 visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once the post has been published, your converted currency will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to 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, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using a forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and 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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