Are you planning to sell any products online globally? If so, then here’s a good idea: consider providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency converting software allows your customers to convert international currency prices into their local currency at the buying or checkout stage. It also lets customers see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it lets your customers see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it 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 and easily work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WordPress Currency Conversion Plugin
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free to install and use on your WP website.
Some of the features of this plugin include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Full language translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web hosting support team to update your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can visit the plugin’s settings section by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress dashboard navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down menu. The default currency is ’United States Dollar’ …
You can choose any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default option is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose another option, such as European Central Bank or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, just ignore this option …
Configure the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click Save Changes when you have finished configuring all the options in this page …
When you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to any WordPress page or post using a shortcode.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no web coding knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail an item online for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product sales page.
All you need to do is add the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 188.35, 37.95, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode should look when added to the post or page …
After publishing the page or post, the converted currency amount will display as seen in the screenshot below …
Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a post …
After publishing the content, the converted currency will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to select a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing the content, your converted currency amounts will then display as you can see in the example below …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar section using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by commas), and click Save to save your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now appear on the sidebar 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 section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by the forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you change this symbol and resave your settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
WP E-Commerce
As stated earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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