The Seattle-based online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. is now working on putting up a physical retail store in the heart of Manhattan, New York City, according to Wall Street Journal.

"Amazon.com Inc. plans to open a store in the middle of New York City, according to people familiar with the plans, the first brick-and-mortar outlet in its 20-year history and an experiment to provide the type of face-to-face experience found at traditional retailers," Wall Street Journal reports.

"The site, set to open in time for the holiday-shopping season on the same busy street as Macy's Inc.'s flagship store, would mark an attempt by Amazon to connect with customers in the physical world," the newspaper added.

It has been CEO Jeff Bezos' long time dream to operate a physical retail store, and it is finally happening somewhere in Midtown Manhattan.

The new store is expected to handle same-day delivery, pickups, returns, inventory and a potential showroom for Amazon's new gadgets, but Amazon's move is stirring confusion as to the direction the company is taking.

In the beginning, Bezos' vision was crystal clear – to turn into the largest online retailer in the world.

Then, Amazon tackled cloud storage and mobility.

Now, it will adapt the traditional brick-and-mortar model as it opens its first physical store in New York City.

Bezos is known for the ambitious campaigns which has turned Amazon from a bookseller into one of the largest eCommerce companies in the world.

However, lately, some of the grand ideas and bold ventures have not paid off that well.

In fact, the Amazon's second quarter losses were double what Wall Street analysts had predicted.

Arguably the biggest chunk of the damage emanated from its desire to enter the congested smartphone industry, as is evident with the Kindle tablet and Kindle Fire Phone.

Just last September, it was reported that Alibaba officially knocked Amazon off as the world's largest online retailer in terms of market capitalization.

Chinese-bred Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. became the biggest IPO in history with a valuation of $25 billion.