Do you plan to sell products online internationally? If so, then you should probably consider providing your prospects with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion lets your prospects convert international currency pricing to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows your customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to your web site, allowing your site visitors to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress site.
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web hosting support team to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
When the plugin has been installed and activated, you can visit the plugin’s settings area by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin user area …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
You can also 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 an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the settings and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP page or post using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell your products for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 188.35, 29.95, 129.10, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after you have inserted it into the page …
After publishing the information, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using this example, let’s now display the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
After publishing your information, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to specify a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site 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 you add it to a post …
After publishing your page, your converted currency amounts will then display as shown below …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add the currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now display on the sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 example below …
If you modify this symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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