At its release it generally came out to very positive reviews in technical journals, although compared to later products its management tools were on the arcane side.
The tools used to maintain item metadata were very basic and required a degree of technical familiarity foreign to most business users.
On the plus side, once configured, Site Server Commerce Edition got very high ratings for management of conducting e-commerce.
Management of products and orders was fairly sophisticated - a strength that would be extended in the technology that succeeded it: Microsoft Commerce Server.
After the e-commerce technology was integrated, Site Server was sold in two editions: Standard, and Commerce.