Tag: Convert Currency

Are you planning to sell goods online to a foreign market? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing your web visitors with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.

Currency conversion tools allow your visitors to have the cost of an international currency amount converted into their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also lets visitors and customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.

One great advantage of providing currency conversion 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 calculate their costs and expenses.

If your site is built with WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.

Currencyr – WordPress Currency Converting Plugin

Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress web site.

Useful plugin features include the following:

• In-line converter
• Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
• Supports Shortcodes
• Currency table and converter widget
• Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
• Automatic local currency detection
• Supports full language translations

Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.

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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the “Install” button …

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings section by choosing Currencyr from your WP admin user area …

This takes you to the plugin settings area …

For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …

You can also specify a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose 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 to enter an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …

You can choose how often you want the exchange rates to update by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …

The 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 (such as WordPress plugins).

If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …

Edit the rest of the plugin settings to suit your needs and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured all the settings on this screen …

When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress post or page using shortcodes and widgets.

See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.

How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes

You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets without having to mess with code using shortcodes.

Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:

Let’s say that you retail goods on your site for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.

To display this information, you simply need to insert the shortcode below into your page content …

Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 97.00, 1356.87, etc …)

The example below shows how your shortcode looks when inserting it into the page …

Once the information has been published, your currency conversion will display like this …

Using the above example, let’s also display the same price into multiple currencies.

To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …

You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a post …

After publishing the page or post, the converted currency amounts will then display like this …

refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.

Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one set as the default.

For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …

Here’s how the shortcode appears when inserted into your content …

After publishing your information, the converted currency amounts will then display like this …

How To Use The Plugin Widget

You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.

To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress admin menu …

In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …

Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …

Your currency converter will now display on your sidebar menu with the options you have specified when configuring the widget …

Additional Plugin Notes

This section contains additional 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 modify the symbol and resave your plugin settings …

Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …

Integration With e-Commerce Platforms

As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …

(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)

And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce web site.

To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:

• WordPress e-Commerce Plugins: A Comprehensive Guide

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