Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling goods internationally? If so, then it’s a good idea to consider providing your web visitors with currency conversion.
Currency conversion software tools let your visitors have the price of a foreign currency transaction translated into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets your customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One advantage of showing currency conversion is that it allows visitors to view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, and makes it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, it’s easy to add a currency conversion plugin to currency conversion to WordPress via a plugin, allowing your customers to easily perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your goods.
WordPress Currency Conversion Plugin – Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. And, it’s also free to install and use on your WordPress site.
This plugin includes a number of practical features like the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-store plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Support for language translations
Important: The Currencyr 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 webhosting provider to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins area and clicking “Install Now” …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can access the plugin’s settings area by selecting Currencyr from your WordPress administration navigation menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a drop-down 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 dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank, FoxRate, Google Finance or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates, you will need to obtain an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can specify how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, just ignore this section …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings according to your own preferences and click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to your WordPress site’s pages using shortcodes.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, GBP, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WordPress posts, pages and widgets with no programming skills or knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you are selling your products on your site for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show this price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your page.
To do this, simply insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 89.95, 189.00, 400.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the above shortcode looks after you have added it to your post or page …
After publishing the page, the currency conversion will appear as seen in the example below …
Using this example, let’s also convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a post …
After publishing the post or page, your currency conversion will then display as seen in the screenshot below …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the end of this tutorial to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, if you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The example below now shows how the shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
Once your post or page has been published, the currency conversion will then display like this …
Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, choose Appearance > Widgets in your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the example below (add any currency codes you would like displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click Save to update your settings …
The currency converter will now show on the sidebar with the settings you have selected …
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 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 example below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Integration
As mentioned earlier, the Currencyr plugin integrates with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and 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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