Are you planning to sell goods or services online internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing your potential customers with currency conversion.
Currency conversion lets your prospective customers convert foreign currency prices to their local currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also allows your visitors and customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of displaying currency conversion is that it allows customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s quite easy to add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to easily understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free!
The Currencyr useful plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your webhosting company to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP admin user menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option ’USD’ …
You can also specify a data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how frequently you want the exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the rest of the settings according to your preferences and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when finished …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling a product for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, just add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 79.45, 2499.99, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode will look once you have inserted it into the page or post …
After publishing your post, your converted currency amount will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s now translate the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will then display as shown below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
After publishing your information, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Using The Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP 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 example below (add any currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on your website’s sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you select another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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