Are you thinking about setting up an e-commerce site or selling goods to an overseas customer base? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing users with a currency conversion service.
Currency conversion allows your site visitors to convert foreign currency amounts into their local currency at the point of sale. It also lets visitors see the exact amount their credit card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their own local currency.
The obvious advantage of showing currency conversion is that it allows customers to see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own home currency, making it it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built with WordPress, you can add currency conversion via a plugin to your WordPress site, allowing your customers to quickly perform currency conversions to determine the cost of your products.
Currencyr – Currency Converter For WordPress
Currencyr is a simple yet advanced, intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter plugin with a unique converter tooltip. And, it’s also free!
This plugin includes many advanced features like:
- Inline converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, like Yahoo!, Open Exchange Rates & European Central Bank
- Support database cache driven for fast response
- Widgetized currency table and converter
- Can be integrated with a number of e-commerce plugins such as WP-eCommerce and Shopp.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Supports full translations
Important: This plugin requires your server to be running PHP 5.3.0 or later. Do not use this plugin if you are running an older version of PHP. Ask your web host to check and upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the currency conversion plugin from your WP 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 access the plugin’s settings by selecting Currencyr from your WP administration menu …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select a base currency from a dropdown menu if you want something other than the default option ’US Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose which data provider you want to use from the dropdown menu in the Provider section. The default selection is ‘Yahoo! Finance’, but you can choose one of the other options, such as European Central Bank or Google Finance …
Note: If you choose Open Exchange Rates as your provider, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can choose how frequently you want the currency exchange rates to update by selecting an option from the ‘Update Rates’ dropdown menu …
The plugin uses jQuery, which lets web developers add things like animation effects to web applications (e.g. WP plugins).
Unless you have a reason to modify the jQuery settings, you can just ignore this option …
Configure the remainder of the plugin settings and remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when done …
Once your plugin settings have been configured, you can start adding currency conversion to any WP post or page using shortcodes and widgets.
Refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, AUD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
Using Plugin Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to posts, pages and widgets without having to mess with your web templates using shortcodes.
Here are some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to WP pages and posts:
Let’s say that you retail an item online for a set price (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to show this conversion amount in British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
All you need to do is insert the following shortcode into your page content …
Note: You can also add prices in dollars and cents (e.g. 155.25, 189.00, 399.99, etc …)
The example below shows how your shortcode should look when added to your product page …
When the post has been published, your currency conversion will then appear as shown in the screenshot below …
Using the same example, let’s now convert the same amount into different currencies.
To do this, use following shortcode (add as many currency symbols as you like separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when inserted into a post …
After publishing the post, the converted currency amounts will then appear as seen in the screenshot below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section below to learn how to change the currency separator symbol in this plugin.
Now, let’s suppose that you would like to specify a different base currency than the one set as the default.
For example, say you have set your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your site targeted to visitors in countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
You can see how the above shortcode looks when you add it to a post …
After publishing the content, your converted currency will then display like this …
How To Use The Widget
You can also insert a currency converter into your website or blog’s sidebar using a widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar menu, select Appearance > Widgets from your WordPress dashboard 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 …
The currency conversion tool will now display on the sidebar menu with the settings you have selected …
Additional Plugin Notes
This section contains additional information about using the Currencyr plugin.
Currency Separator
The Currencyr plugin lets you specify the symbol to display as the currency separator when using multiple currencies.
You can select a different symbol in the Multiple Separator settings section.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your prices using a forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you enter another symbol and update your settings …
Your website visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
E-Commerce Platform Integration
As described earlier, the plugin can be integrated with a number of WordPress-compatible e-commerce plugins like WP-eCommerce and Shopp …
(above image sourced from Currencyr plugin website)
Congratulations! Now you know how to easily add currency conversion to your e-commerce site.
To learn more about WordPress e-commerce plugins, see the tutorial below:
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