Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or selling products globally? If so, then you should think about providing your potential customers with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion software tools let your web visitors translate international currency transactions into their home currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows customers to view and understand prices 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, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to quickly work out the cost of your goods.
WP Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s free!
This useful plugin includes features like:
- Inline converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
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. Ask your webhosting company to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the “Install Now” button …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings section by choosing Currencyr from your WP administration navigation menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu. The default currency is ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this setting …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings to suit your preferences and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when finished …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP post using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your products for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 175.00, 37.95, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after you have inserted it into a product page …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will appear as shown in the example below …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price into different currency formats.
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 content, your converted currency will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to select a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to customers in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when added to your content …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …
Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in the 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 settings as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on the 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 a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
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 modify this symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! 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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