Do you plan to set up an e-commerce website, or sell goods and services to a foreign market? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting software tools let your prospective customers have the price of a foreign currency transaction translated into their home currency when purchasing or checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets your visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One benefit of putting currency conversion on your site is that it allows customers to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your visitors to quickly and easily work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your web site.
The Currencyr plugin includes great features like the following:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Note: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your webhosting support team to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress administration menu …
The plugin settings area offers you a number of configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu. The default base currency is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another option, like European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can choose how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to edit the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Edit the rest of the settings to suit your own needs and click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured this section …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to your WP blog’s pages using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to WordPress pages, posts and widgets without touching your web templates 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 retail your products on your site for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 6.95, 22.00, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode should look when added to your product page …
When your post or page has been published, the converted currency will then appear like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
Once the page or post has been published, your currency conversion will then display as seen 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 want to select a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once the page has been published, the converted currency will then display as shown in the screenshot below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now display on your sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful 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 you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change this symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image sourced from plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)