Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making goods and services available for sale online? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your web site.
Currency conversion software allows your prospects to convert international currency pricing into their local currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also allows your customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
The obvious benefit of putting currency conversion is that it allows your customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your website or blog, allowing your visitors to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your web site.
The Currencyr plugin includes many features like the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Full support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option (USD) …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page 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, AUD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WordPress pages, posts and widgets without having to edit your web templates using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell your products on your site for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To display this information, just insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 29.95, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks when inserting it into the page …
After publishing the page, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see below …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the page or post, the converted currency will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to select a different base currency than the one 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 non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
After publishing the page or post, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’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 area …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now show on your website’s sidebar 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 lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you select another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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