This article is for LIBRARIANS, or ADMINISTRATORS who also have the FINANCE role. 


When you set your retail purchasing mode to retail requests, your users will be able to request that specific ebooks in the Engage store are purchased for them by your institution. 


Not only does this give you the power to monitor purchases, but since students and teachers are allowed to hand-pick ebooks, you can also ensure that your school’s budget is spent wisely, on titles that users really need.


A book purchased via a retail request will belong to the user who made the purchase request, and will be assigned automatically to that user’s account. Only that user will have access to the book.


This article relates to enabling purchase requests for books from the Snapplify Engage store. You can also purchase ebooks for your institution’s digital library. Only users with the Finance role are able to approve purchases.


Allowing users to request ebooks from the Engage store

  1. Log in to Engage and navigate to settings by clicking on the cog icon in the top right-hand corner of your screen.
  2. On the ‘General Settings’ page, scroll down to 'Retail Purchasing Mode' and select the retail requests option
  3. Once Retail request is selected a drop down will appear for you to determine who may make these requests. From the drop-down menu, select:
    • None: if no users can request titles from the store.
    • Teachers Only: only users with the Teacher role can request titles from the store.
    • Admin Only: an admin user can request a title for themselves or on behalf of another user 
    • All Users: all users can request titles from the store.
  4. Click the ‘Save’ button to save your changes.


Once a user requests a book, an email will be sent to users with the Finance role to approve or deny the request. If approved, the cost will be deducted from the institution’s available credit.

Learn how to manage your retail requests through Engage.



If you've enabled retail requests but you haven't yet loaded your account balance, users will still be able to make requests for ebooks they would like your institution to purchase for them but you won’t be able to approve any of these requests until you’ve added credit.



Need help? Use the live chat in the bottom right corner of your screen or email us at help@snapplify.com.