Do you plan to sell goods and services online globally? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency converting tools allow your visitors to convert foreign currency transactions to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One advantage of providing currency conversion is that it lets visitors view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, it’s simple to add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WP Websites And Blogs
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free to install and use on your website or blog.
This useful plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of online shopping plugins like WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Support for language translations
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install” button …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings section by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin user area …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default base currency is ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can select a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option 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 to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing 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 WP plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to all of your WP posts using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP pages, posts and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your products on your website for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 175.00, 79.45, 295.75, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being inserted into the page or post …
After publishing the post or page, the currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once your page or post has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing the post, your converted currency amounts will then display as seen below …
How To Use The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion 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 any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now display on your sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! 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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