Do you sell products online internationally? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency converting software lets your visitors have the cost of a foreign currency transaction converted to their home currency when purchasing products online. It also allows your visitors and customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converter For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Great plugin features include:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full support for language translations
Note: The Currencyr 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. Ask your web host to update your PHP server installation if needed.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’USD’ …
You can choose a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can 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, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets without having to edit 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 a product on your site for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, simply insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 197.00, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserting it into your post or page …
When your page has been published, your converted currency will appear as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing your content, the converted currency amounts will then appear as seen in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one you have 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 shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on your sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice 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) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you specify another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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