Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or making products available for sale worldwide? If so, then you should consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency conversion lets your visitors have the cost of a foreign currency transaction converted into their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also lets visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
One great advantage of putting currency conversion is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, it’s simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website.
This useful plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several 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
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce, Shop and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Supports full language translations
Note: This plugin needs your server to be running 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 upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install Now” button …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration area …
The plugin settings section offers you many configuration settings …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider 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, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates 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 (such as WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, you can simply ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to any WordPress post using a shortcode.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WordPress pages, posts and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell a product on your website for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To display this information, simply add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 165.49, 189.00, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks once you have added it to your post or page …
After publishing your post, the converted currency amount will then display as seen below …
Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once the page has been published, your converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to select a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say you have specified 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 …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once the post has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets from the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on your 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 several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using a forward slash as shown below …
If you enter another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Using The Currencyr Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(above image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to 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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