Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making goods available for sale internationally? If so, then here’s a great idea: consider providing your web visitors with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency conversion software allows your web visitors to convert foreign currency transactions to their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of showing currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, it’s really easy to add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Conversion Plugin For WordPress
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free to install and use on your website.
Some of the features of this useful plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Full support for language translations
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Alternatively, ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin area …
The plugin settings area offers you a number of configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu. The default option is ’USD’ …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by specifying an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings according to your own needs and don’t forget to click Save Changes when you have configured all of your options …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) in this plugin.
How To Use Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail a product on your site for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, just insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 29.95, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode will look after being inserted into your post or page …
After publishing your page, the currency conversion will display as you can see below …
Using this example, let’s also display the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
Once your information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one selected as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once the information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion 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 screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on your website’s sidebar with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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