Are you planning to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell your products to a worldwide customer base? If so, then you may want to consider providing your potential customers with a currency conversion tool.
Currency converting software tools allow your site visitors to have the cost of an international currency transaction converted to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets your visitors and customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
The obvious advantage of displaying currency conversion is that it allows visitors to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to your site, allowing your site visitors to easily determine the cost of your goods.
WordPress Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your WP website or blog.
Great plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web hosting company to update your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP admin user navigation menu …
The plugin settings section offers you various configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is ’USD’ …
You can also choose which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select one of the other options, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr 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 change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the settings to suit your own needs and click the Save Changes button when finished …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can 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 this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail a product online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also add pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 47.00, 544.97, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look after being inserted into the post …
After publishing the post or page, the converted currency amount will then appear like this …
Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once your page or post has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have selected as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once the information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar menu, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now display on your sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using the forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(above image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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