Closesubstitute goods:

The number of closesubstitute goods

The more substitutes of good has and the more close the substitutes are, the more elastic the demand for the good. For example, the beverage, bornvita, has a number of close sustitutes such as milo, chocolim, ovaltine etc. Therefore, the demand for bornvita is likely to be more leastic because the slightest increase in the price of bornvita, consumers of the product will switch to the consumption of one of the substitutes.

On the other hand, if the goods does not have any close sustitute, the demand tends to be less elastic or inelastic. For example, there is hardly a substitute to food as a whole hence the demand for food as a whole is inlestic.