Do you sell your products online internationally? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing users with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion software tools let your prospective customers have the price of a foreign currency transaction translated to their local currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One advantage of displaying currency conversion is that it allows customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to your WordPress website, allowing your site visitors to quickly understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Free Currency Converting Plugin For WP Sites
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WordPress site.
Some of the useful features of this plugin include:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full language translation support
Important: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your webhosting support team to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings section by choosing Currencyr from your WP administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is ’USD’ …
You can also select any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose another provider, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you want to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the settings to suit your needs and don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page or post using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without editing code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell an item on your website for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 22.00, 129.10, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode should look when inserting it into a page …
After publishing the post, the converted currency will then appear as shown in the example below …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once your information has been published, your converted currency will then display as shown in the example below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once the post has been published, the converted currency will then appear like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on the 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 several currencies.
You can change the 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 you can see in the example below …
If you enter another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
WordPress E-Commerce
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: plugin website)
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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