Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making products available for sale globally? If so, you may want to think about providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software lets your customers have the price of an international currency amount translated into their local currency when checking out products online. It also allows your customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion is that it lets your customers 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.
If your site is built using WordPress, it’s easy to add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to easily calculate the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Tool For WordPress
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
This currency conversion WordPress plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full language translation support
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web host to upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can select one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down 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 there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, you can just ignore this option …
Edit the rest of the settings and remember to click Save Changes when you have finished configuring this screen …
Once you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail goods online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this price 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 insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 197.00, 295.75, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look when added to your page or post …
After publishing the page or post, your converted currency will then display like this …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing the post, the converted currency will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing your page or post, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your sidebar menu with the options 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 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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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