Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making products available for sale globally? If so, you may want to think about providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency converting software tools let your prospective customers convert foreign currency pricing into their home currency when checking out products on e-commerce sites. It also allows customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
One benefit of adding currency conversion is that it lets customers view and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, it’s quite easy and simple to add a currency conversion plugin to your WordPress web site, allowing your customers to quickly and easily perform currency conversions to determine 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 converter tooltip. And, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
Some of the many useful features of this useful plugin include:
- In-line converter
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google and European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Supports integration with various e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Note: This plugin requires 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 currency conversion plugin from your WordPress dashboard by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you can get to the plugin’s settings screen by selecting Currencyr from your WP admin menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings area …
For example, you can choose a base currency from the Base Currency drop-down menu if you want something other than the default option ’USD’ …
You can also specify which data provider you want to use from a drop-down menu. The default provider is Yahoo Finance, but you can also choose another provider, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how often you would like the currency exchange rates to be updated by specifying an option from the ‘Update Rates’ drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to change the jQuery settings, simply ignore this option …
Configure the rest of the settings to suit your own preferences and don’t forget to click Save Changes when you have configured all of your options …
When you have configured your plugin settings, you can start adding currency conversion to WP pages using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, ZAR, etc …) with this plugin.
Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to WP posts, pages and widgets without having to edit code using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell goods for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to show the conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode to your page content …
Note: You can also display amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 89.95, 97.00, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how your shortcode looks once you have inserted it into the page …
Once your page or post has been published, your converted currency amount will display like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode looks when added to a post …
After publishing the post or page, the currency conversion will then appear as you can see 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 in the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one 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 non-European customers (e.g. Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the shortcode looks when added to a page …
Once your page has been published, your currency conversion will then display as seen below …
Plugin Widget
You can also add currency conversion to your website or blog’s sidebar section using a widget.
To add currency conversion to your sidebar area, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets area find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add the currency codes you want displaying on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency converter tool will now display on the 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 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 field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Displays your currency values separated by a forward slash as shown below …
If you change this symbol and resave your settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Software
As mentioned earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopp and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin website)
And there you have it! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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