Welcome back. Some companies are moving away from policies that make their members or subscribers jump through hoops to quit. An activist investor wants Zendesk to drop its deal to buy the parent of SurveyMonkey. And chain retailers are expected to open more stores this year than they close, partly reflecting a new view of their place in the customer experience.

Common but annoying “click to subscribe, call to cancel” practices may be waning among subscription providers, Katie Deighton writes for the Experience Report.

Several companies, including DirecTV, Planet Fitness and The Wall Street Journal say they plan to introduce easier ways for customers to cancel, as federal and state authorities home in on regulating unfair user-experience designs.

Adding friction to the cancelation process has long been an effective business strategy, but the Federal Trade Commission last month told businesses to provide cancelation mechanisms that are at least as easy to use as corresponding sign-up methods.

And a California law taking effect next year will require companies to let customers cancel online without “engaging any further steps that obstruct or delay the consumer’s ability to terminate immediately.”

“We are currently evaluating our membership management policies and are exploring ways to evolve them to provide additional options and convenience,” said McCall Gosselin, senior vice president of communications and corporate responsibility at Planet Fitness, which currently does not let the majority of members quit online or even by phone.

Remember that multi-billion deal between Zendesk and the parent company of SurveyMonkey, described as a way to help companies get even better feedback from their customers?

Activist investor Jana Partners would like everybody to forget it, Cara Lombardo reports.

Zendesk specializes in helping companies with customer communications, while SurveyMonkey facilitates the design and implementation of web-based surveys. Zendesk in late October agreed to buy SurveyMonkey’s parent in an all-stock deal that at the time was worth about $4.1 billion.

Jana, a major stakeholder in Zendesk, is now urging Zendesk’s board to terminate that pact, which it said “lacks financial merit, has questionable strategic logic, and introduces a high degree of execution risk for Zendesk shareholders.”

It would also diminish what Jana believes would be buyer interest in Zendesk, according to the investor.

Brick-and-mortar stores are back in style, Suzanne Kapner writes.

Retailers this year are expected to open more stores than they close for the first time since 2017, according to an analysis of more than 900 chains by IHL Group, a research and advisory company.

Most of the growth is coming from mass merchants, food, drugs and convenience chains.

Behind the shift are changing views about the value of physical stores, industry executives and analysts said.

Stores have become integral in fulfilling e-commerce orders. They serve as distribution hubs and convenient places for shoppers to pick up and return online purchases.

“Five or six years ago, there was lots of discussion about whether e-commerce would gobble up bricks-and-mortar retail,” said Toni Roeller, senior vice president of in-store environment and visual merchandising at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Instead, she said, the online and store experience became more closely linked, which translated into a need for more stores.

The late Virgil Abloh made a wide impact on product design, from IKEA to Evian. (WSJ) 

A startup is selling plant pots that it calls more sustainable partly because they fold flat to ship. (Fast Company) 

Startups are trying to fix the online checkout experience. (Fast Company) 

Movie theaters have to rethink the experience they provide if they want to win back the moviegoers they have lost during the pandemic, a new survey suggests. (NYT)

How Hudson is bringing cashierless checkout and other automated retail concepts to airports. (Retail Customer Experience)

Australia’s corporate regulator sued Westpac bank for $81 million over allegations of poor treatment of customers such as charging fees to dead people. (BBC) 

Eight fundamentals for creating a successful customer experience strategy. (CMSWire)

Why chief customer officer roles are popping up at more companies. (CNBC)

Newsletter compiled with Katie Deighton and Ann-Marie Alcántara