Are you planning to set up an e-commerce website with WordPress, or sell products globally? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency converting software allows your prospects to convert international currency amounts to their home currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets your customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s quite easy and simple to add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to easily work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Some of the features of this plugin include the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Important: This plugin requires 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 webhosting support team to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress administration menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
You can select any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how frequently you want the exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The 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 (like WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click Save Changes when you have finished configuring all of your options …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to your WP posts using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail an item online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (for example, 175.00, 47.00, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks after you have inserted it into a page …
When your post has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when added to your content …
Once the information has been published, the currency conversion will then display as shown below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as your default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when added to your content …
After publishing your page or post, the converted currency will then appear like this …
Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter will now display on the sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you modify this symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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