Are you planning to set up an e-commerce site with WordPress, or sell products internationally? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software lets your prospects translate international currency transactions into their local currency when checking out products online. It also allows visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious benefit of showing currency conversion on your site is that it allows your customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to your site using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WP website.
The Currencyr plugin includes a number of practical features such as:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google & FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Supports full language translations
Note: This plugin needs your server to be running 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 webhosting provider to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings screen by selecting Currencyr from your admin area …
The plugin settings section provides various configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is ’USD’ …
You can also specify any supported data provider from a drop-down menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another option, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the remainder of the settings and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
Once you have configured your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress post using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WP pages, posts and widgets without having to mess with code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell your products for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 189.00, 544.97, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once your information has been published, the converted currency amount will then appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s also display the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing your information, the converted currency amounts will then display as you can see in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing the page or post, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now display on the sidebar menu with the options 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 lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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