Do you sell goods or services online worldwide? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency converting software allows your prospective customers to translate foreign currency transactions to their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets customers see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, 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 site.
Some of the many useful features of this plugin include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google & Open Exchange Rates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Translation support
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. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can specify any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select another option, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by choosing 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. WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Configure the rest of the settings according to your preferences and click Save Changes when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to all of your WP pages using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your product online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 189.00, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode will look when inserting it into a page or post …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing your information, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a page …
Once the post has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
How To Use The Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now appear on the sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you select another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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