<p>Digital logistics environments increasingly require human-centric training approaches that support procedural reliability and operational performance. Virtual Reality (VR) has been adopted for immersive training in such contexts, yet evidence regarding its relative effectiveness compared with conventional instructional methods remains mixed. This study presents a controlled experimental comparison of VR-based and text-based instruction for manual order picking tasks, integrating objective performance measures with structured self-reported evaluations. Results indicated no statistically significant differences between training conditions in task completion time or error rates. Participants in the VR condition reported statistically higher ratings of confidence, perceived effectiveness, and perceived applicability to real-world operational settings. At a ten-day follow-up, perceived knowledge retention remained high and comparable across conditions, while expectations of future performance improvement were statistically higher in the VR group. This pattern suggests that the benefits of VR may have been expressed more strongly through perceived engagement, spatial awareness, and user experience than through immediate objective performance differences. VR may be positioned as a complementary instructional modality associated with higher perceived competence and readiness within digital intralogistics environments, rather than as a replacement for conventional instruction. Despite limitations related to sample composition and reliance on self-reported measures, the study provides controlled empirical evidence on instructional modality differences in manual order picking training.</p>