It was only a couple of years ago that Bluetooth beacons looked to be the future of the bricks-and-mortar shopping experience. However, enthusiasm has waned and adoption has been slow, leaving retailers looking for alternative technologies to combat their losses to online sales. The National Retail Federation’s convention was the stage for a number of announcements that illustrate the potential of the IoT here. But to quickly recap Bluetooth beacons, a technology pushed by Apple and then seized by a raft of startups, the stumbling block always appeared to be the integration of the beacon experience into the two major smartphone platforms – Android and iOS. The beacons themselves, small Bluetooth-equipped boxes that could beam messages to nearby users, seemed…