Do you plan to sell goods or services online worldwide? If so, then here’s a good idea: think about providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your web site.
Currency converting software tools allow your prospects to have the price of an international currency amount translated into their local currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their home currency.
One great benefit of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, it’s really easy and simple to add currency conversion using a plugin to your WP website or blog, allowing your visitors to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Converter For WP Web Sites
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your site.
Useful plugin features include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Google, Open Exchange Rates and European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Supports full translations
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can visit the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can select a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is ‘USD’ …
You can specify a data provider from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another option, such as European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you want to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the remainder of the plugin settings and click Save Changes when you have finished configuring this page …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to WP website’s pages and posts using widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, ZAR, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you retail goods for a fixed price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
To display this information, just add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 197.00, 1356.87, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to your product page …
After publishing your content, your currency conversion will then display as seen below …
Using this example, let’s now display the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing your content, the converted currency amounts will then display as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one you have selected as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
After publishing your post or page, your converted currency amounts will then display as shown below …
Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar menu using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar area, select Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard 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 currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on the sidebar menu with the options you have specified …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin allows you to specify the symbol 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, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values with the forward slash as shown below …
If you change the symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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