Do you plan to sell goods online globally? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency converting software lets your prospective customers convert foreign currency amounts into their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of putting currency conversion on your site is that it lets your customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s easy and simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to your WP website, allowing your site visitors to quickly work out the cost of your products.
WordPress Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website.
Some of the features of this plugin include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Google, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Supports full translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your webhosting support team to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings screen by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress admin user menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you would like the exchange rates to be updated 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 …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished configuring all of your options …
After you have configured your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail an item for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, simply insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 47.00, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when added to your product page …
After publishing your page or post, your converted currency amount will display like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing the content, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to use 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 …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once the content has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar area using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on your site’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …
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 multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as shown below …
If you select another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Software Integration
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
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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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)