Do you plan to sell goods or services online internationally? If so, then you should probably think about providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency converting software tools let your visitors have the cost of an international currency amount converted to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows customers to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to your website using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converter For WP Websites
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s free!
The Currencyr useful plugin includes a number of features such as:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires 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 hosting support team to upgrade your PHP server installation if required.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin area …
The plugin settings area provides various configuration options …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ‘USD’ …
You can also specify which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The 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 modify the jQuery settings, you can just ignore this section …
Configure the remainder of the settings and click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured all of your settings …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress page using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail your product on your site for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 189.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks after being added to your page …
After your post has been published, your converted currency amount will then display like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once the post has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as the 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 shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once the content has been published, your converted currency will then appear like this …
Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now display on your site’s sidebar with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using a forward slash as shown below …
If you modify this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Software
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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