Do you sell goods online globally? If so, then you should probably think about providing your prospects with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion tools allow your visitors to have the cost of a foreign currency transaction converted to their home currency when purchasing products online. It also lets your visitors see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One great benefit of displaying currency conversion on your site is that it lets visitors view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, 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 WP website or blog.
This plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires 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 hosting support team to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user menu …
The plugin settings area offers you a number of configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu if you want a different currency than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can select one of the other options, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to change the jQuery settings, simply ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the settings according to your needs and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when done …
After you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no web coding skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, simply add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 197.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to your product page …
Once your information has been published, the currency conversion will display as shown below …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing the post or page, the currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (for example, 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 a post …
After publishing the post or page, the currency conversion will then appear as shown in the screenshot below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now display on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the 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 shown below …
If you modify this symbol and update your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Software
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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