Are you planning to sell any products online internationally? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency conversion allows your visitors to translate international currency pricing into their local currency at the purchase or checkout stage. It also allows visitors and customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of showing currency conversion on your site is that it allows customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s completely free!
Some of the many features of this plugin include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Supports full language translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Alternatively, ask your web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu if you want a different currency than the default option (USD) …
You can also select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can select one of the other options, such as 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 would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when finished …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP post or page using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets without having to edit your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you sell goods for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 47.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when added to the post or page …
When your page or post has been published, the converted currency will display like this …
Using the same example, let’s now display the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing your page or post, the currency conversion will then display as shown 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 this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a page …
After publishing your page, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you would like to display on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now show on your sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple 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 a forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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