Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making goods or services available for sale to an online market? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software allows your visitors to translate international currency amounts into their home currency when checking out products online. It also allows your visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s really easy and simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to your web site using a plugin, allowing your customers to easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – Currency Converter For WP Sites
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
This currency conversion WordPress plugin includes a number of features like:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of 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 a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr plugin requires 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 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 section and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can get to the plugin’s settings area by choosing Currencyr from your dashboard area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu. The default option is ‘USD’ …
You can also select any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider 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, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how often you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by selecting 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 WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this setting …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings according to your preferences and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have finished configuring all of your settings …
After you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can easily start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell an item for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, just add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 97.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to the post …
Once the content has been published, your currency conversion will appear like this …
Using the above example, let’s now display the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing your content, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select 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 website targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once the page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section 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 save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your site’s sidebar with the options you have selected …
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 a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several 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 the forward slash as shown below …
If you specify another symbol and update your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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