Are you planning to set up a WordPress-based e-commerce site, or sell goods or services worldwide? If so, then you should consider providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion software lets your web visitors translate international currency pricing into their local currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets visitors and customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it allows visitors to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, it’s really easy and simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to WordPress, allowing your customers to easily work out the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Google and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various online shopping plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically determines local currency
- Translation support
Important: The Currencyr plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP server installation.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking the “Install” button …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard navigation menu …
The plugin settings page provides a number of configuration options …
For example, you can select your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can specify a data provider from a drop-down menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another provider, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how often you want the exchange rates to be updated by selecting an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
If you have no reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave them as they are …
Edit the remainder of the settings and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
Once you have configured your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to WP pages using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no web coding skills or knowledge 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 goods online for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would also like to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 22.00, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks once you have added it to the post or page …
When the content has been published, your converted currency will then appear as seen below …
Using this example, let’s now display the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when added to your content …
After publishing the post, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you want to use a different base currency than the one 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 visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once the post has been published, the converted currency will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website’s sidebar menu using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on your sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
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 several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change the symbol and update your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to 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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