Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling products worldwide? If so, then you should probably consider providing your potential customers with a currency conversion feature.
Currency conversion tools let your prospects have the cost of a foreign currency amount translated into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One benefit of displaying currency conversion on your site is that it allows visitors to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add currency conversion using a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to easily understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WordPress Free Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your site.
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, like 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 like WooCommerce & Shopp.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Full translation support
Important: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your webhosting company to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu. The default option is ’United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select another option, like European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you would like the exchange rates to be updated by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings to suit your needs and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when finished …
When you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can easily add currency conversion to WordPress site’s posts and pages using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WordPress pages, posts and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling goods online for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 29.95, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode will look after being added to your page …
Once the content has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to your content …
Once your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one you have selected as the 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 customers (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once the post or page has been published, the converted currency will then appear like this …
Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your sidebar with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can change the symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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