Are you planning to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell your products globally? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your web site.
Currency converting tools let your prospective customers convert international currency amounts 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 home currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to your WordPress web site using a plugin, allowing your visitors to easily calculate the cost of your products.
WP Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WordPress website or blog.
Useful plugin features include:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Google and European Central Bank
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires 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 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 area and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin user menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings section …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu. The default base currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another provider, like FoxRate or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you would like the exchange rates to be updated by selecting 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 (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …
Edit the remainder of the settings and click Save Changes when finished …
Once you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WP post using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no technical knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling your products for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, you will need to add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 29.95, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after being inserted into your post …
After publishing your content, the currency conversion will appear as shown in the screenshot below …
Using the above example, let’s also 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 example below now shows how the above shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing the post or page, the converted currency will then appear as seen in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to specify 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 e-commerce pages targeted to non-European customers (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
Once the page has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now show on your site’s sidebar 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 lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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