Struggling Online Makeup Retailer Birchbox Cuts More Staff

Thirty staff members were fired by online makeup retailer Birchbox Inc., just weeks after its co-founder expressed her hope both for an initial public offering and to invigorate online sales with a storefront presence.

Katia Beauchamp, who announced the 12 percent staff reduction on Tuesday morning, laid out her plans for the company in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this month. Known for its beauty sample subscription service, Birchbox has dedicated its efforts to selling full-size products online, helped in part by an actual store in New York's SoHo neighborhood. The company hopes to open more stores in the future, but it has no imminent plans to do so as Birchbox is currently focused on profitability.

Birchbox already eliminated 50 positions this year in an effort to cut costs. This most recent round, which affected all departments and included severance packages, brings the total remaining staff to about 220.

"We thought we did that in January, but the cuts were not deep enough to get us where we need to go in the time frame we want," Beauchamp said in a statement. "I wish I had been less conservative."