Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or selling goods online? If so, then here’s a great idea: think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce website.
Currency conversion allows your visitors to have the price of a foreign currency amount converted to their home currency at the purchase or checkout phase. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion to your website is that it allows customers to see 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 powered by WordPress, it’s easy to add currency conversion via a plugin to your WP website or blog, allowing your visitors to quickly understand the cost of your products.
Currencyr – WP Free Currency Converting Plugin
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Plugin features include the following:
- Inline converter
- Supports several exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo! and European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with various e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatically detects local currency
- Support for language translations
Important: 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. Ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your admin navigation menu …
The plugin settings screen provides several configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ’USD’ …
Similarly, you can choose any supported data provider from a dropdown menu. The default selection is Yahoo Finance, but you can select another option, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can select how often you would like to update the exchange rates by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down 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 WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings to suit your own needs and click Save Changes when finished …
Once you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to WP posts and pages using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, JPY, etc …) in this plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without touching your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WP posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell your product for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, just add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 188.35, 22.00, 295.75, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode looks when inserting it into your post or page …
After publishing your information, the converted currency will then appear as you can see below …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
Once your page has been published, the converted currency amounts will then appear as seen below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you would like to use a different base currency than the one set as your default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (e.g. 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 a page …
After publishing your page, the converted currency will then display like this …
Using The Plugin Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now appear on the sidebar menu with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 several 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 shown below …
If you change the symbol and update your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the Currencyr plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your WordPress site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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