Are you planning to sell products online to an international customer base? If so, then you should consider providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion software allows your prospective customers to convert international currency pricing to their local currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets your visitors view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to your website or blog via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your WP site.
This useful plugin includes a number of practical features like the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, Shop & Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Translation support
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress admin area …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can select your base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
You can also select which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, 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 select how frequently you would like the exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The 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).
If you have no reason to edit the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings according to your needs and click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured all of your options …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to your WordPress pages using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without having to mess with your web templates using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
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 the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To display this information, simply insert the shortcode below to your post or page …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (for example, 16.95, 37.95, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look when added to the page or post …
Once the page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
Once the content has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within this plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
After publishing your post, your converted currency amounts will then display as you can see below …
Currencyr Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from 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 settings as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter tool will now show 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 a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using the forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
WP E-Commerce
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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