Do you plan to set up an e-commerce web site, or sell products online? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing your web visitors with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce site.
Currency converting tools let your customers translate foreign currency amounts to their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets your visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
The obvious benefit of showing currency conversion on your website is that it lets customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your website using a plugin, allowing your visitors to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
Some of the features of this great plugin include:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Google, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of online store plugins like WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full translation support
Important: This 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. Alternatively, 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 section and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings page by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
You can specify a data provider from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can select one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by choosing 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).
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 you have finished configuring all of your options …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no technical skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your product on your site for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 6.95, 29.95, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks after you have added it to a post or page …
Once your information has been published, the currency conversion will display like this …
Using the same example, let’s also translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then display as you can see in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the content, your converted currency will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar 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 lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! 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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