Add Currency Conversion To Your WordPress Website
Currency conversion software tools let your prospects have the cost of an international currency transaction translated into their home currency at the point of sale.
Currencyr is a free WP tool that lets your visitors translate international transaction amounts into their local currency.
Need currency conversion for your WordPress website? Learn about Currencyr, a simple and easy-to-install WordPress tool for your WordPress website that lets your customers convert foreign currency amounts into their local currency.
Do you sell products online globally? If so, then it’s a great idea to consider providing your prospects with the convenience of currency conversion on your e-commerce web site.
Currency conversion software tools let your customers have the price of an international currency transaction translated to their home currency when purchasing or checking out products online. It also lets visitors and customers view the exact amount their card or PayPal account will be charged, expressed in their local currency.
The obvious advantage of displaying currency conversion on your site is that it lets visitors see and understand pricing in foreign countries in their own local currency, making it it easier for customers to work out their costs and expenses.
If your site is built using WordPress, it’s simple to add currency conversion via a plugin to your WordPress website or blog, allowing your visitors to quickly understand the cost of your goods.
Currencyr
Currencyr is an intuitive, easy-to-use and complete currency converter WordPress plugin with a beautiful and unique converter tooltip. Best of all, it’s free to install and use on your website or blog.
The Currencyr useful plugin includes features like the following:
- In-line converter
- Supports various exchange rates providers, such as Yahoo!, Google, Open Exchange Rates, European Central Bank and FoxRates
- WP-Cron task scheduler enabled
- Currency table and converter widget
- Can be integrated with a number of e-store plugins like WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
- Can determine local currency automatically
- Full support for language translations
Important: 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 web host to upgrade your PHP.
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You can install the plugin from your WP admin area by typing in “currencyr” into the Plugins search field and clicking “Install Now” …
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you can configure the plugin’s settings by choosing Currencyr from your WordPress administration area …
This takes you to the plugin settings screen …
For example, you can select your base currency from the ‘Base Currency’ dropdown menu. The default base currency is ‘United States Dollar’ …
Similarly, you can choose a data provider from a dropdown menu. 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 select ‘Open Exchange Rates’, you will need an API (Application Programming Interface) ID …
You can select how frequently 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 (like WP plugins).
Unless there is a reason to modify the jQuery settings, leave this option alone …
Configure the rest of the settings according to your own needs and click ‘Save Changes’ when finished …
When you have finished configuring your plugin settings, you can add currency conversion to your WP site’s pages and posts using shortcodes and widgets.
See the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section further below to learn how to use currency codes (e.g. USD, NZD, CAD, etc …) in the Currencyr plugin.
How To Use Currencyr Shortcodes
You can easily add currency conversion to pages, posts and widgets with no technical knowledge or skills using shortcodes.
Let’s take a look at some examples of currency shortcodes that you can add to your WordPress pages and posts:
Let’s say that you are selling goods for a set amount (e.g. $175) in US Dollars (USD), and you would like to display the amount converted into British pounds (GBP) on your sales page.
To do this, you will need to add the shortcode below into your page content …
Note: You can also insert amounts in dollars and cents (for example, 155.25, 79.45, 544.97, etc …)
The screenshot below shows how the above shortcode should look once you have added it to your post …
After publishing the page, your currency conversion will then display like this …
Using this example, let’s also translate the same amount into multiple currencies.
To do this, use the shortcode shown below (add as many currency symbols as you want separated by vertical pipes) …
You can see how the shortcode appears when added to a page …
Once the post or page has been published, your converted currency will then appear as you can see in the example below …
refer to the ‘Additional Plugin Notes’ section at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to change the currency separator symbol with this plugin.
Now, let’s say that you would like to select a different base currency than the one selected as the default.
For example, say you have specified your default base currency as EUR and you have a section on your e-commerce pages targeted to customers from countries like Australia or Canada, you can change the base currency using the following shortcode …
The screenshot below shows how the shortcode looks when inserted into your content …
After publishing your content, the converted currency will then display as you can see below …
How To Use The Currencyr Widget
You can also insert currency conversion into your site’s sidebar using the Currencyr widget.
To add the currency converter to your sidebar, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP admin menu …
In the Widgets > Available Widgets section find the ‘Currencyr’ widget and drag it to an ‘Active Widgets’ area …
Configure the widget settings as shown in the screenshot below (add currency codes separated by a comma), and click ‘Save’ to update your settings …
The currency conversion tool will now appear on your site’s sidebar menu with the settings you have specified …
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 select a different symbol in the ‘Multiple Separator’ settings field.
So, for example, using the default symbol “/” (forward slash) …
Separates all your currency values using the forward slash as you can see in the example below …
If you modify the symbol and resave your settings …
Your web visitors will see the new symbol display as the currency separator …
e-Commerce Platform Integration
As stated earlier, the plugin integrates with a number of WP-compatible e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, WP-eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads …
(image source: plugin site)
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Congratulations! Now you can go and easily add a currency converter to your e-commerce site.
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