Do you sell goods online to a foreign audience? If so, then you should think about providing users with currency conversion.
Currency converting software allows your visitors to convert foreign currency pricing into their home currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also allows customers to see the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own home currency.
The obvious advantage of adding currency conversion to your site is that it lets your customers view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to WordPress, allowing your site visitors to easily calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converter
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique and attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
The Currencyr currency conversion WP plugin features:
- In-line converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various e-store plugins like WooCommerce and Shopp.
- Automatic local currency detection
- Full language translation support
Note: The Currencyr plugin requires PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Alternatively, ask your webhosting provider to update your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can access the plugin’s settings section by selecting Currencyr from your admin user area …
The plugin settings area provides a number of configuration settings …
For example, you can select a base currency from the Base Currency dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ’USD’ …
You can also select which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the Provider section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how often you would like to update the currency exchange rates by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to edit the jQuery settings, simply ignore this section …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click Save Changes when done …
After you have finished configuring your settings, you can easily add currency conversion to any WP post or page using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into pages, posts and widgets with no technical skills using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling an item for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To display this information, just add the following shortcode into your post or page …
Note: You can also insert pricing in dollars and cents (e.g. 165.49, 197.00, 129.10, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks after you have inserted it into your post …
After publishing the information, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Using the above example, let’s also translate the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
Once your page has been published, the converted currency will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, if you have specified 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 …
Here’s how the above shortcode looks when added to a post …
Once the information has been published, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
How To Use The Widget
You can also add a currency converter to your website or blog’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an Active Widgets location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now show on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified when configuring the widget …
Additional Plugin Notes
Here are some additional notes and useful information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify a symbol of your choice to display as the currency separator when using several currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings section.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts using a forward slash as you can see in the screenshot below …
If you enter another symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WP e-Commerce Platforms
As described earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce, Shopp, 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 e-commerce web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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