Do you plan to set up an e-commerce website with WordPress, or sell your products to a foreign audience? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing users with a currency conversion tool.
Currency conversion tools let your prospects translate foreign currency amounts to their home currency at the buying or checkout phase. It also allows your visitors and customers to view the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, displayed in their own local currency.
One advantage of providing currency conversion on your website is that it lets visitors see and understand prices in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for purchasers to calculate their costs and expenses.
If your site is powered by WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to currency conversion to WordPress using a plugin, allowing your visitors to quickly calculate 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!
Plugin features include:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo! & FoxRates
- Supports Shortcodes
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with various online store plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Automatic local currency determination
- Translation support
Note: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not install this plugin if you currently have an older version of PHP installed on your server. Ask your webhosting provider to check and upgrade your PHP.
***
You can install the plugin from your WordPress admin area by searching for “currencyr” in the Plugins screen and clicking the ”Install Now” button …
After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration area …
The plugin settings screen provides a number of configuration options …
For example, you can choose your base currency from a drop-down menu. The default base currency is ’US Dollar’ …
You can specify which data provider you want to use from the drop-down menu in the ‘Provider’ section. The default option is Yahoo Finance, but you can also select another provider, like FoxRate or Open Exchange Rates …
Note: If you select Open Exchange Rates as your provider, an API (Application Programming Interface) is required …
You can select how often you want to update the currency exchange rates by choosing an option from the Update Rates drop-down menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which is an open-source library of Javascript code that lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (such as WordPress plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, simply ignore this section …
Configure the rest of the settings and remember to click ‘Save Changes’ when you have configured this section …
After your plugin settings have been configured, you can easily add currency conversion to your WP site’s posts or pages using shortcodes.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) with the Currencyr plugin.
Plugin Shortcodes
You can insert currency conversion into WP posts, pages and widgets with no coding knowledge using shortcodes.
Below are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail goods for a fixed amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you want to display this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your product information page.
To do this, just insert the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 89.95, 79.45, 149.00, etc …)
The example below shows how the shortcode looks after being inserted into the post …
After publishing your post or page, your currency conversion will then appear like this …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same price into different currency formats.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (you can add as many currency symbols as you like by using vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode looks when you add it to your content …
After publishing your page, the converted currency amounts will then appear like this …
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn more about changing the currency separator symbol within the Currencyr plugin.
Now, suppose you want to use a different base currency than the one selected as the 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 visitors from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
Here’s how the above shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once the post has been published, your currency conversion will then display as seen in the example below …
Using The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your site’s sidebar menu using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to the ‘Active Widgets’ location …
Configure the widget options as shown below (add the currency codes you want to display on your widget separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
Your currency converter will now show on your website’s sidebar with the options 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 allows you to specify the symbol 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) …
Separates all your prices with the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you specify another symbol and update your plugin settings …
Your site visitors will see the new symbol being used as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Software Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce, Shopp, and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: Currencyr plugin site)
And there you have it! Now you can go and easily add currency conversion to your WordPress website.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
***
"I love the way your email series "Infinite Web Content Creation Training Series" is documented and presented. It is very absorbing and captivating. The links and tutorials are interesting and educational. This has motivated me to rewrite my content following the concepts I am learning from the email series." - Mani Raju, www.fortuneinewaste.com