Do you plan to sell goods or services online to a global audience? If so, you may want to consider providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency converting software tools allow your customers to have the cost of an international currency transaction converted to their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it allows visitors to see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to your site via a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to easily understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s 100% free!
The Currencyr currency conversion WP plugin features:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates & FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Important: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your webhosting support team to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your admin user area …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select a base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you prefer something other than the default option (USD) …
Similarly, you can specify any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also select one of the other options, such as 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) is required …
You can specify how frequently you want to update the currency exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, simply ignore this section …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings to suit your preferences and click the Save Changes button when you have finished configuring this page …
Once you have configured your settings, you can add currency conversion to any WP page using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets with no programming knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell your product for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below to your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 89.95, 37.95, 2499.99, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks after you have added it to the page or post …
After publishing the post or page, your currency conversion will display as shown in the screenshot below …
Using the above example, let’s also convert the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once your content has been published, your converted currency will then display as seen below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one set as the 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 …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into a post …
Once your post has been published, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard 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 commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now display on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 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 amounts with a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you select another symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Using The Plugin With WP-Compatible e-Commerce Software
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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