Do you plan to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell your products internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion tools allow your visitors to have the cost of an international currency transaction converted into their local currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also lets customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One great advantage of showing currency conversion is that it lets customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to your WP website, allowing your customers to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your site.
Plugin features include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web hosting company to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default option is ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, such as FoxRate or Google Finance …
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 would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr 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 WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this option …
Configure the rest of the settings according to your own needs and click Save Changes when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in this plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without editing your web templates using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling goods for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 47.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks once you have added it to your product page …
After the information has been published, your converted currency amount will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same price into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once your information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to select a different base currency than the one selected 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 visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once the post or page has been published, the converted currency will then display like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
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 multiple 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 a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you select another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
WP E-Commerce
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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