Are you planning to set up an e-commerce web site, or sell products worldwide? If so, then it’s a good idea to think about providing your potential customers with currency conversion.
Currency converting software lets your visitors translate international currency amounts to their local currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also lets your visitors view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
The obvious benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it allows customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add a currency converter to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily understand the cost of your products.
WordPress Free Currency Converter – Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
The Currencyr useful WordPress plugin features:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Google, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Support for language translations
Note: This plugin needs your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web hosting provider to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is (‘USD’) …
Similarly, you can select any supported data provider from the dropdown menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose another provider, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this setting …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and click Save Changes when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to any WordPress page or post using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets without touching your web templates 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 retail a product online for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To do this, just insert the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 197.00, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a product page …
After publishing your content, your converted currency will appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s now display the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
After publishing the information, the converted currency amounts will then display like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have selected 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 customers in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
After publishing your information, your converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website or blog’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on the sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify a symbol of your choice 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 with a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you specify another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)