Do you plan to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell products worldwide? If so, then you may want to consider providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency conversion software allows your site visitors to have the price of a foreign currency transaction converted to their local currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also lets your visitors and customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets your customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, it’s really easy and simple to add a currency conversion plugin to your website, allowing your customers to quickly calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Google & Open Exchange Rates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with a number of e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Supports full translations
Important: This 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. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu if you prefer to use a different currency than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
You can also specify which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose another provider, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you would like the exchange rates to update by choosing 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 (such as WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the remainder of the settings according to your preferences and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to WP website’s posts using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages 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 pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling your product for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 19.95, 79.45, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look when inserting it into a page …
After publishing the page, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same amount into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
Once your post or page has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website’s sidebar area using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now appear on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr 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 field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using a forward slash as shown below …
If you enter another symbol and resave your plugin settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce web 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)