Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making products available for sale internationally? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting tools allow your prospective customers to have the price of a foreign currency transaction converted into their home currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One great benefit of providing currency conversion is that it allows your customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s really simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your site visitors to easily determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
This currency conversion WP plugin includes features such as:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard navigation menu …
The plugin settings section offers you many configuration options …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu if you want something other than the default option ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another provider, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how often you want 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 WP plugins).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this option …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your own preferences and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have configured this page …
When you have configured your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP page or post using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell an item for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, you simply need to add the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 97.00, 129.10, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserting it into your post …
After publishing the content, the converted currency amount will appear as shown in the example below …
Using the above example, let’s now convert the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing the post or page, your currency conversion will then display as shown below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to use a different base currency than the one you have selected 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 non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
After publishing your post or page, the currency conversion will then display as you can see in the screenshot below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from the WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several 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 you can see in the example below …
If you change the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! 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:
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