Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making goods or services available for sale globally? If so, you should probably think about providing your prospects with currency conversion.
Currency conversion lets your site visitors translate foreign currency transactions into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets your customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
One advantage of putting currency conversion is that it allows your customers to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your website, allowing your prospective customers to quickly and easily determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. And, it’s also free to install and use on your WordPress website.
This useful WordPress plugin includes many features such as:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Note: This plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP on your server. Ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin menu …
The plugin settings screen offers you several configuration settings …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu if you want a different currency than the default option ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. 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 choose Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how often you would like to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave these as they are …
Edit the remainder of the settings and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
When your plugin settings have been configured, you can add currency conversion to any WP page or post using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets with no programming skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell goods on your website for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 97.00, 295.75, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look once you have inserted it into a post …
After your page or post has been published, the currency conversion will then display as you can see below …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into your content …
Once your page has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display as shown in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to specify 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 customers (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
After publishing the content, your converted currency amounts will then appear as you can see below …
Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your site’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP user admin 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 a comma), and click Save to save your settings …
The currency converter will now show on your site’s 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 lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can change the symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as shown below …
If you modify the symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Using The Currencyr Plugin With WordPress-Compatible e-Commerce Platforms
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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