Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling goods internationally? If so, you should think about providing your web visitors with a currency conversion tool.
Currency converting software allows your prospective customers to have the price of an international currency transaction converted into their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows visitors and customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One advantage of providing currency conversion on your website is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your web site using a plugin, allowing your customers to quickly and easily work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your site.
Some of the features of this plugin include:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web hosting company to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
You can also select which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can specify how frequently you want the exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the remainder of the settings to suit your preferences and don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
When you have configured your settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail your products for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display your amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, you will need to add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 175.00, 97.00, 544.97, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode will look once you have inserted it into your page …
When your information has been published, the currency conversion will appear as shown below …
Using the above example, let’s now translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the page, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as your default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to non-European customers (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a page …
After publishing the page or post, the converted currency will then appear like this …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr 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 select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you enter another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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