Do you plan to sell goods or services online internationally? If so, then it’s a good idea to think about providing users with the convenience of currency conversion on your website.
Currency conversion tools let your prospective customers convert foreign currency transactions to their home currency at the point of sale. It also lets your visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their local currency.
One great advantage of showing currency conversion on your site is that it lets customers see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, and makes it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
If you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your WordPress site, allowing your visitors to quickly work out the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. It’s also free!
Some of the features of this plugin include the following:
- Inline conversion tool
- Supports various 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, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can detect local currency automatically
- Supports full language translations
Note: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use 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 Currencyr plugin from your WordPress dashboard by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins section and clicking the “Install Now” button …
After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings page …
For example, you can choose a base currency from a dropdown menu. The default base currency is ‘United States Dollar – (USD)’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from a dropdown menu. The default provider is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can also choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select ‘Open Exchange Rates’ as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how often you would like to update the exchange rates by choosing an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown 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 (like WordPress plugins).
If you have no reason to change the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click the Save Changes button when you have configured this section …
After you have configured your settings, you can add currency conversion to your WordPress posts using widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Shortcodes
You can easily insert currency conversion into posts, pages and widgets without having to edit your web templates using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell an item for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show your price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
All you need to do is add the shortcode below into your post or page …
Note: You can also display pricing in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 29.95, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode should look once you have added it to your page …
Once the page or post has been published, your currency conversion will display like this …
Using this example, let’s also display the same price into multiple currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a page …
After publishing your post or page, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to specify 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 non-European visitors (like Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode appears when you add it to a page …
Once your page or post has been published, the converted currency will then display as you can see in the screenshot below …
Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets in the WP user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget settings as shown below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency conversion tool will now display on the sidebar with the options you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional 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 select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, entering the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency amounts with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify this symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol used as the currency separator …
Integration With e-Commerce Platforms
As mentioned earlier, the plugin can be integrated with various WP-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(image source: plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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