Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling products worldwide? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software tools allow your customers to have the cost of an international currency transaction converted to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also lets your visitors and customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion is that it allows customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s really easy to add a currency converter to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily work out the cost of your goods.
WordPress Free Currency Converting Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your website.
The Currencyr currency conversion WP plugin includes features like the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Supports full language translations
Note: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration area …
The plugin settings screen provides several configuration settings …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
You can select which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no programming knowledge using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail your products on your site for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To display this information, simply add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 29.95, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserting it into your page …
After publishing your page, the converted currency amount will display as shown below …
Using this example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once the post or page has been published, the converted currency will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
Using The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets from your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different 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 screenshot below …
If you modify the symbol and update your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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