Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making products available for sale to an overseas audience? If so, you should probably consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency conversion allows your prospective customers to convert foreign currency prices into their local currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also lets your visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s really easy and simple to add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
WordPress Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WP website.
Some of the many features of this great plugin include:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Translation support
Important: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web hosting support team to upgrade your PHP server installation if required.
***
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” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings area by selecting Currencyr from your admin navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option (USD) …
You can also choose any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another provider, such as FoxRate 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 would like to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown 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).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the rest of the settings and don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no web coding skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 29.95, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode will look after you have inserted it into your post …
After your post has been published, the converted currency amount will display as you can see in the example below …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once the information has been published, your converted currency will then appear as you can see below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European customers (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing your post or page, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar area using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now display on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
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 several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"I love the way your email series "Infinite Web Content Creation Training Series" is documented and presented. It is very absorbing and captivating. The links and tutorials are interesting and educational. This has motivated me to rewrite my content following the concepts I am learning from the email series." - Mani Raju, www.fortuneinewaste.com