Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce web site or making goods available for sale worldwide? If so, you should think about providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion tools let your site visitors have the cost of an international currency amount translated into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets customers view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their home currency.
One great benefit of putting currency conversion on your site is that it allows visitors to view and understand prices in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for visitors to work out their costs and expenses.
Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user, you can add a currency conversion plugin to your WP site, allowing your customers to quickly calculate the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WP plugin with a visually attractive converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free!
Some of the many useful features of this useful plugin include:
- In-line conversion tool
- Supports a number of exchange rates providers, such as Google and European Central Bank
- Supports Shortcodes
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Note: This plugin needs PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed. Alternatively, ask your web host to check and upgrade 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 “Install Now” …
When you have installed and activated the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WP admin navigation menu …
The plugin settings page offers you several configuration settings …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a dropdown menu if you prefer to use something other than the default option ‘USD’ …
Similarly, you can specify which data provider you want to use from a dropdown menu. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can choose another option, like European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) will be required …
You can specify how frequently you would like the exchange rates to update by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The Currencyr plugin uses jQuery, which allows web developers to add things like animation effects to web applications (like WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, you can just ignore this setting …
Edit the rest of the plugin settings and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have configured this page …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily start adding currency conversion to WordPress site’s posts using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about using currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, JPY, etc …) with this plugin.
Using Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets without touching code using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WordPress posts and pages:
Let’s say that you sell your product online for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display the price converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, simply add the following shortcode to your post or page …
Note: You can also insert prices in dollars and cents (for example, 19.95, 79.45, 149.00, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks after you have inserted it into a product page …
After publishing the content, your currency conversion will display as shown in the screenshot below …
Using this example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode below (you can add as many currency symbols as you want by using vertical pipes) …
The example below shows how the shortcode looks when added to a page …
After publishing the content, the currency conversion will then display like this …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to use a different base currency than the one you have set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your website targeted to non-European visitors (for example, Australia or Canada), you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below now shows how the above shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
After publishing your page, your converted currency will then display like this …
Using The Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your website or blog’s sidebar section using the plugin’s widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress user admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and add it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by commas), and click ‘Save’ to save your settings …
The currency converter tool will now appear on your website’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 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 field.
So, for example, using 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 settings …
Your web site visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
Integration With WordPress e-Commerce Software
As described earlier, the plugin integrates with various WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image sourced from plugin site)
Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress web site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)