Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce website or selling goods globally? If so, then it’s a great idea to think about providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software lets your site visitors translate foreign currency transactions to their home currency at the point of sale. It also allows your visitors and customers to view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own home currency.
One great advantage of adding currency conversion is that it allows your customers to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your prospective customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr
Currencyr is a simple, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Some of the many useful features of this plugin include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Supports integration with a number of e-store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Important: 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. Alternatively, ask your web host to update your PHP.
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You can install the Currencyr plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the “Install” button …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings screen by choosing Currencyr from your WP administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu. The default option is ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can select any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another option, 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 select how often you want to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, you can just ignore this section …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and don’t forget to click the Save Changes button when you have configured this screen …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress post using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, CAD, etc …) with this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WordPress pages, posts and widgets with no coding skills using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling a product online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show your conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To display this information, you simply need to add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also add amounts in dollars and cents (e.g. 16.95, 29.95, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode should look when inserting it into your post or page …
After publishing the page, the currency conversion will then display as shown below …
Using the same example, let’s also convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the above shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing the content, the currency conversion will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, let’s say that you want to use 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 website targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the shortcode appears when you add it to your content …
Once your information has been published, your converted currency amounts will then display like this …
Currencyr 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, choose Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an Active Widgets area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the example below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now appear on the sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
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 field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you change this symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
WP E-Commerce
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add a currency converter to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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